en Environmental Health, Sciences, and Engineering Environmental Health, Sciences, and Engineering پژوهشي Original Article <div class="WordSection1" style="text-align: justify;"> <div class="WordSection1"><span style="line-height:1;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="page:WordSection1"><b><span style="color:black">Background: </span></b><span style="color:black">Anthropogenic plastic pollution poses a severe global threat; however, this study aimed to investigate the synergistic role of nature connectedness and mindfulness in shaping awareness of single-use plastic pollution among university students.</span><br> <b><span style="color:black">Methods:</span></b><span style="color:black"> This cross-sectional questionnaire-based<b> </b>study assessed nature connectedness and mindfulness in 140 students in Isfahan, Iran. A Generalized Additive Model (GAM) was employed to examine nonlinear relationships. Both constructs were measured on a 5-point Likert scale and standardized to a 0-1 scale. </span><br> <b><span style="color:black">Results: </span></b><span style="color:black">Nature connectedness and mindfulness interacted nonlinearly (edf > 1.00) to predict risk perception, explaining 73.5% of the variance (R² = 0.735). Mindfulness significantly moderated the effect of nature connectedness, with nonlinear patterns showing a complex relationship. The effect of nature connectedness (mean 3.1 &plusmn; 1.4) was amplified by mindfulness (mean 3.3 &plusmn; 1.2), achieving 100% statistical power. </span><br> <b><span style="color:black">Conclusion: </span></b><span style="color:black">These findings underscore the synergistic role of nature connectedness and mindfulness in enhancing pollution sensitivity. Although context-specific to Isfahan, the results offer novel insights for environmental psychology. Practically, universities in Isfahan can implement nature-based interventions and mindfulness training to elevate risk perception, targeting students&rsquo; moderate nature connectedness and high mindfulness to reduce plastic use, directly shaping campus sustainability policies and curbing single-use plastic waste in Iran&rsquo;s urban context.</span></span></span></span></span></div> <div aria-label="Page Break" class="cke_pagebreak" contenteditable="false" data-cke-display-name="pagebreak" data-cke-pagebreak="1" style="page-break-after:always" title="Page Break"></div></div> <div aria-label="Page Break" class="cke_pagebreak" contenteditable="false" data-cke-display-name="pagebreak" data-cke-pagebreak="1" style="page-break-after:always" title="Page Break"></div> Students, Mindfulness, Environmental Pollution, Attitudes, Plastics, 0 0 http://jhehp.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-658-4&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Mana Tanhayi mana.tanhaei2@gmail.com 100319475328460016362 0009-0004-0138-543X No Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Isf.C., Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran. Atefeh Chamani atefehchamani@yahoo.com 100319475328460016363 100319475328460016363 Yes Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Isf.C., Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran. Saeed Mohammadi saeed.mohammadi3@gmail.com 100319475328460016364 100319475328460016364 No Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran.