Associations Between Digital Life Balance, Eco-Emotions and Readiness to Change for Sustainability

Given the growing impact of the climate crisis on mental health, it is necessary to explore the domain of eco-emotions, the affective responses to environmental change. In keeping with this, the present exploratory study aimed to investigate the association between Digital Life Balance (DLB) and eco-emotions, while also examining whether Readiness to Change (RtC) dimensions were involved in possible indirect associations within exploratory cross-sectional statistical mediation models. Data were collected through the use of an anonymous online survey, and the final sample consisted of 257 participants (59.9% cisgender women; 39.3% cisgender men; 0.8% people belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community; mean age = 32.99, SD = 14.640). From a methodological perspective, correlation analysis, MANOVA and exploratory cross-sectional statistical mediation models were performed. The results showed small positive correlations between DLB and eco-emotions in terms of anger, isolation, anxiety, and sorrow. Exploratory statistical mediation models suggested possible uncorrected indirect associations involving perceived importance of the environmental problem (PI; RtC). However, these specific indirect associations did not remain significant after Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple testing. Accordingly, the findings should be interpreted as small, preliminary, unadjusted cross-sectional associations between subjective online–offline balance, selected eco-emotions, and sustainability-related psychological readiness. In conclusion, this work provides an initial basis for future longitudinal and covariate-adjusted studies examining how subjective digital–offline balance may be linked to eco-emotional experiences and sustainability-related psychological readiness.