The measurement of place attachment: Personal, community, and environmental connections

►In this study, a four-dimensional model of rural landholder attachments to their natural resource management region was conceptually and empirically developed with the goal of developing an integrated approach to the measurement of place attachment that clearly distinguishes between different elements of place scholarship. ►Our findings indicate that a five-dimensional model of place attachment comprising of place identity, dependence, nature bonding, family bonding, and friend bonding is a valid and reliable measure of rural landholder attachments to their natural resource management region. ►We argue that the attributes of the physical and social setting cannot be viewed in isolation of the highly personalized emotions formed in these settings which we refer to as the personal context to place attachment. ►Individual connection with place is not just a function of experience with nature or social interaction with friends and family in setting, but also how individuals construct their own identity through their residential and farming histories.