Connectedness To Nature And Sociodemographic Variables In Eduadorian University Students

This study examines the relationship between the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) and traditional sociodemographic variables—age, sex, place of residence, and socioeconomic status (SES)—among university students, with a focus on the contextual influence of a female-majority academic environment. Utilizing a cross-sectional design, data were collected from 396 psychology students (66% female, 34% male) who were selected via stratified probabilistic sampling. The normality tests (Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogorov-Smirnov) indicated non-parametric distributions for the CNS, necessitating the implementation of Spearman's correlation, Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney U tests. The findings indicated an absence of a statistically significant association between CNS and SES (ρ = -0.023, p = 0.652) or age (ρ = 0.041, p = 0.415). Additionally, no significant differences were observed in CNS across urban/rural residency (U = 19878.5, p = 0.710) or sex (U = 16244.5, p = 0.271), with negligible effect sizes (r < 0.07). A Kruskal-Wallis analysis confirmed homogeneity in CNS across SES categories (H(3) = 2.61, p = 0.456, ε² = 0.007). These findings challenge conventional models linking sociodemographic disparities to environmental perceptions, suggesting that institutional factors in homogeneous academic settings—such as equitable access to green spaces and gender-balanced socialization—may neutralize structural inequalities. The study underscores the potential of academic institutions to function as egalitarian spaces that foster nature connectedness, irrespective of students' backgrounds. Future research should explore psychosocial mediators (e.g., environmental identity) and replicate findings in diverse academic contexts to generalize these insights.