Using Nature to Regulate Emotions: Introducing the Nature Selection Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (NS-ERQ)

Citation

Vitale, V., White, M. P., Bratman, G. N., Gross, J. J., Preece, D. A., & Bonaiuto, M. (2026). Using Nature to Regulate Emotions: Introducing the Nature Selection Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (NS-ERQ). Journal of Environmental Psychology. doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2026.102960

Link to file

People manage their emotions in many different ways. One important but often overlooked way is by choosing where to go in order to feel better. For example, someone might decide to visit a park, beach, or forest to calm down or boost their mood. This study focuses on choosing to go to an environment as a form of emotional regulation.

To better understand this behavior, researchers created and tested a new questionnaire called the Nature Selection Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (NS-ERQ). This tool measures how and why people choose to spend time in nature to influence how they feel.

The research included three separate studies:

Study 1 (292 people): Researchers developed an English version of the questionnaire based on Russell’s Circumplex Model of Affect (1980).
Study 2 (302 people, with 125 completing a follow-up survey): Researchers tested whether the questionnaire gives consistent and accurate results. The results showed that it reliably measures what it is intended to measure, and that people’s responses remain stable over time.
Study 3 (308 people): The questionnaire was translated into Italian and tested again. The results confirmed that it works just as well in Italian as in English.

Overall, the findings show that this new questionnaire is a reliable way to measure how people choose natural environments to manage their emotions, providing a new framework for understanding the role of selecting environmental context in emotion regulation.

Abstract

Emotion regulation (ER) takes many forms. One of the most intriguing is situation selection, which refers to selecting the situations we’re exposed to with a view to influencing our emotions. Despite its importance, surprisingly little is known about situation selection. In the present work, we examine an important form of situation selection, namely location selection – emphasizing the deliberate choice of environmental settings, with a particular focus in selecting nature experiences, to influence emotional states. To measure and explore this process, we validated a new self-report scale – the Nature Selection Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (NS-ERQ) – across three studies. In the first study (NS1 = 292), we developed the English version of the scale starting with an initial set of 20 items. The items were generated based on Russell’s Circumplex Model of Affect (1980), reflecting the four primary dimensions of affect defined by valence and arousal. Exploratory factor analysis led to a refined 12-item scale, organized into a two-factor structure: restoration and revitalization. The second study (NS2 – T1 = 302) tested the 12-item scale’s reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity, as well as test-retest reliability and predictive validity through a follow-up survey (NS2 – T2 = 125). The third study (NS3 = 308) adapted the scale for Italian speakers, confirming the two-factor structure as well as its reliability and validity. Furthermore, the scale demonstrated measurement invariance across English and Italian versions, confirming its cross-linguistic equivalence. Overall, these findings establish the NS-ERQ as a robust instrument for assessing how individuals choose to visit natural environments for emotion regulation, providing a new framework for understanding the role of selecting environmental context in emotion regulation.