Nature contact and adolescent paper-reuse behavior: place attachment versus climate anxiety in a two-wave study of Chinese adolescents.

BACKGROUND

Nature contact is often linked to pro-environmental behavior, but the psychological processes connecting these experiences to later behavior remain unclear. This study examined reusing paper and compared two theoretically distinct pathways: a positive-bonding pathway through place attachment and a threat-mobilization pathway through climate anxiety.

METHODS

A two-wave longitudinal study was conducted among 504 Chinese adolescents nested in 15 classrooms. They reported their nature contact during school days, after school, and on weekends, place attachment, climate anxiety, and paper-reuse behavior. Classroom random-intercept models, cluster-adjusted parallel indirect-association models, and exploratory cross-level interaction models were used.

RESULTS

Among the three contexts of nature contact, only weekend nature contact was positively associated with later paper-reuse behavior in the separate-context model (p = .031). The indirect association through place attachment was positive, whereas the corresponding estimate through climate anxiety was not significant. Continuous classroom friendship reciprocity did not reliably moderate the focal associations.

CONCLUSIONS

For adolescents, weekend nature contact was associated with later paper-reuse behavior and the finding are consistent with an indirect-association account involving place attachment. Future research could further validate the underlying mechanisms involved.