Ecospirituality Scale

Abstract

The Ecospirituality Scale, developed by Billet et al. in 2023, was designed to assess the concept of nature’s spiritual qualities. The development process began with an initial pool of 38 items, which were formulated to represent four prevalent themes within ecospirituality: the perception of nature or the human-nature connection as spiritually meaningful, direct spiritual experiences within nature, a general sense of connectedness between humans and the natural world, and the anthropomorphism of nature. After administering this 38-item version to a sample of American participants, a parallel factor analysis supported a more concise two-factor structure comprising eight items. The scale’s validation was further established through its administration to seven additional samples of individuals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. The authors reported comprehensive data on the scale’s reliability, validity, and measurement invariance.

Keywords

Ecology; Environmental Attitudes; Spirituality; Nature (Environment); Environmental Measures

Authors

Billet, Matthew I.; Baimel, Adam; Sahakari, Sakshi S.; Schaller, Mark; Norenzayan, Ara

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Purpose

The purpose of this scale is to provide a quantitative measure of an individual’s spiritual conception and perception of the natural world.

Construct

The instrument is designed to measure the psychological construct of Ecospirituality.

Validity

Known-Groups Validity: Evidence for known-groups validity was established by comparing scores between different groups. Members of nature clubs demonstrated significantly higher means on the Ecospirituality Scale (M = 5.78 [5.65, 5.91], SD = .96) compared to members of other types of clubs (M = 5.49 [5.40, 5.58], SD = 1.02). This difference was observed for both the appraisal of nature’s spiritual qualities subscale (Mdiff = .37 [.17, .57]) and the experiences of nature’s spiritual qualities subscale (Mdiff = .21 [.058, .36]).

Convergent/Discriminant Validity: For convergent and discriminant validity, where correlation estimates showed minimal variation across the different samples, the mean correlation estimate is reported, along with the mean 95% confidence interval range.

Predictive Validity: Analysis of predictive validity indicated that ecospirituality was a unique predictor of moral expansiveness for nature (β = 0.16 [0.11, 0.20]). Additionally, both environmentalist identity (β = 0.19 [0.14, 0.23]) and environmental attitudes (β = 0.15 [0.11, 0.20]) were also found to be unique predictors for moral expansiveness concerning nature.

Reliability

Internal Consistency: The scale demonstrated high internal reliability, with minimal variability across the tested samples. The lowest Cronbach’s alpha estimate was .87 (Sample 4), and the highest was .92 (Sample 2). When averaged across all eight samples, the mean Cronbach’s α was .89.

Test-Retest Reliability: Test-retest reliability was assessed with two surveys. The first was administered at the start of the semester in September 2020, and the second was administered at the beginning of the subsequent semester in January 2021. The resulting test-retest correlation was strong, with r = .77, [95% CI .74, .79].

Factor Analysis

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): An initial EFA utilizing an oblimin rotation suggested a three-factor structure for the data.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): A subsequent CFA confirmed that a two-factor model provided an adequate fit for the final eight items (RMSEA = .048; RMSR = .02; TLI = .99). This two-factor model successfully accounted for 66% of the total variance in the scores.

Measurement Invariance: The analysis of measurement invariance showed that the factor structure was consistent between American and Singaporean samples, and also across five different religious denominations within the Singaporean sample (ΔCFI < .01 and ΔRMSEA < .015, following the criteria suggested by Chen, 2007 for samples of this size). Furthermore, scalar invariance (with fixed loadings and intercepts) was established, which is a prerequisite for making direct comparisons of mean scores between different groups (as advised by van de Schoot et al., 2012).

Instrument

Test Type: This is an original inventory/questionnaire.

Format: Respondents are instructed to “Please indicate to what extent you agree with the following statements” using a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.”

Language Available: The test is available in English.

Population Group: The test is intended for human populations, including males and females.

Age Group: The instrument is designed for use with adults, aged 18 years and older.

Population Details: The scale was validated with diverse populations, including university students and members of the Green Party from locations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.

Test Methodology: The development and validation process included assessments of Test Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Predictive Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Test-Retest Reliability, Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis, and Measurement Invariance.

Keywords

Appraisal of Nature’s Spiritual Qualities; Ecospirituality; Experiences of Nature’s Spiritual Qualities; Known-Groups Validity

Authors

Matthew I. Billet

• Author ORCID Identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5768-574X

• Affiliation: University of British Columbia, Department of Psychology

• Email: [email protected]

• Correspondence Address: University of British Columbia, Department of Psychology, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 1Z4

Adam Baimel

• Author ORCID Identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2629-7952

• Affiliation: Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Center for Psychological Research

• Email: No data is Available

Sakshi S. Sahakari

• Author ORCID Identifier: http://orcid.org/0009-0008-0713-0330

• Affiliation: University of British Columbia, Department of Psychology

• Email: No data is Available

Mark Schaller

• Author ORCID Identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1243-4650

• Affiliation: University of British Columbia, Department of Psychology

• Email: No data is Available

Ara Norenzayan

• Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

• Affiliation: University of British Columbia, Department of Psychology

• Email: No data is Available

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

• Permissions: The scale may be used for research and teaching purposes.

• Fee: There is no fee to use this scale.

• Commercial Use: This scale is not for commercial use.

• Test Year: 2023

reference’s

Billet, M. I., Baimel, A., Sahakari, S. S., Schaller, M., & Norenzayan, A. (2023). Ecospirituality: The psychology of moral concern for nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 87, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102001

Items of the Ecospirituality Scale

This is an 8-item measure. The full list of items is available in the source reference publication (Billet et al., 2023), located in Table 1 on page 3. The items are divided into two factors or subscales:

• Appraisal of Nature’s Spiritual Qualities (Appr)

• Experience of Nature’s Spiritual Qualities (Exp)

Note. Items 1-4 = Appraisal of nature’s spiritual qualities. Items 5-8 = Experience of nature’s spiritual qualities. Items are rated on a 7-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.