Connections among Puget Sound Residents’ Psychological Restoration from Natural Environments, Place Attachment, and Beliefs about Environmental Governance

Psychological restoration and place attachment may be related to beliefs about environmental governance, with place attachment a likely mediator. We analyze data from a public survey in the Puget Sound area of Washington state (n = 2323) regarding beliefs about environmental governance, place attachment to the Puget Sound area, and psychological restoration related to this area. On average, individuals felt neutral in their beliefs about environmental governance, had high place attachment, and had high frequency of psychological restoration in natural environments. Structural equation modeling indicated that those who more frequently experienced psychological restoration from natural environments had stronger place attachment and more positive beliefs about environmental governance. Place attachment was significantly associated with governance perceptions, but explained only a small portion of variance (R2 = 0.02), while psychological restoration was significantly associated with place attachment and explained a moderate portion of its variance (R2 = 0.37). Place attachment fully mediated the effects of frequency of psychological restoration on beliefs about governance. Promoting psychological restoration and place attachment without attending to the process factors associated with good governance would not likely be a viable strategy for environmental managers to substantially increase positive beliefs about environmental governance.