Date of Award

8-2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

School

Psychology

Committee Chair

Austen Anderson

Committee Member 2

Emily Yowell

Committee Member 2 School

Psychology

Committee Member 3

Craig Warlick

Committee Member 4

Bonnie Nicholson

Committee Member 4 School

Psychology

Abstract

Emerging adulthood is a developmental period marked by changes and challenges that can cause psychological distress. Struggles with religion and spirituality regularly occur at this age and the associated challenges to emerging adults’ identity, beliefs, and worldviews are known to contribute to distress. Nature engagement as a source of meaning-making and coping has the potential to act as a buffer against the distress caused by these r/s struggles. As such, this study focused on examining the potential moderating role of nature engagement on the relationship between r/s struggles and psychological distress for Latine emerging adults. Participants were recruited through Prolific.ac and included 495 Latine emerging adults currently residing in the US, ages 18-29. Along with demographic information, participants completed the Religious/Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS; Exline et al., 2014), the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS; Mayer & Frantz, 2004), the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6; Kessler et al., 2002), the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE; Diener et al., 2009), and questions about their day-to-day engagement in natural environments. The questionnaire was available in both English and a general Latin American dialect of Spanish. To test whether nature engagement acted as a significant moderator, SEM was used to examine the associations among the variables. Results showed that for overall r/s struggles (b = -0.001, 95% CI [-0.002, 0.00]; b = 0.001, 95% CI [0.00, 0.002]), Ultimate Meaning struggles (b = 0.001, 95% CI [0.000, 0.002]; b = -0.002, 95% CI [-0.003, 0.00]), and Doubt struggles (b = -0.003, 95% CI [-0.004, -0.001]; b = 0.003, 95% CI [0.001, 0.004]), average time spent in nature acted as a moderator to the relationship between RSS and both positive affect and psychological distress. Interestingly, at the highest end of r/s struggles (> +1 SD above the mean), this protective effect diminished, and higher nature engagement was not associated with lower psychological distress or greater positive affect. Given these results, researchers should examine nature-based interventions to help with low to moderate religious distress for Latine emerging adults, potentially improving mental health outcomes for a historically marginalized and underrepresented population.

ORCID ID

0009-0003-7372-398X

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Available for download on Wednesday, December 01, 2027

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