Connection to Nature Index (CNI)
What It Measures
The Connection to Nature Index (CNI) measures how connected a child feels to the natural world — not how much time they spend outdoors, but their emotional relationship with it. It was developed for children roughly ages 8 to 12.
Sixteen statements are rated from strongly disagree to strongly agree, and the score is the average across all items. Four dimensions run through them: enjoyment of nature, empathy for creatures, sense of oneness (feeling part of nature rather than separate from it), and sense of responsibility. Because it measures a trait rather than a mood, it is designed to detect change over months, not after a single outing. Published thresholds treat a mean above 4.56 as a strong connection and below 4.06 as weak.
Further Reading
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes: The University of Essex adopted it and publish a free guide to using it.
Learn More: One measurement caution worth knowing: research has detected scalar noninvariance across gender, meaning apparent differences between boys' and girls' scores may partly reflect measurement bias rather than real difference.