-->PONE-D-25-59455-->-->Exploring the relationships between eco-anxiety, eco-guilt, eco-grief, and pro-environmental behavior in the Dutch and German population: A cross-sectional study-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Petkovski,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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ACADEMIC EDITOR: Please revise

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Kind regards,

Zhengmao Li

Academic Editor

PLOS One

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #1: This study looks at how three eco emotions eco anxiety, eco guilt, and eco grief relate to pro environmental behavior in the Netherlands and Germany. It also examines whether living near water changes these relationships. The topic is important, and the paper is well written. The study is strong in looking at multiple emotions together and exploring a new idea about water proximity. A few edits and clarifications could make the paper even clearer and stronger.

Suggestions and Edits:

1. The abstract calls eco guilt a confounding variable, but it is better described as a suppressor variable if it changes the size or direction of the effect. This will make the meaning clearer.

2. Eco anxiety is described as natural or pathological. You could discuss whether the strong link with pro-environmental behavior suggests it is an adaptive response rather than a mental disorder.

3. The scales were translated into Dutch and German but are not formally validated. Describe how translation was done and mention the limitation.

4. Proximity to water was measured with a yes/no question, which may not capture real differences. Consider suggesting future research use exact distances or personal flood risk perception.

5. Eco anxiety and eco grief are highly correlated , which may indicate overlap. Report Variance Inflation Factor to show multicollinearity did not affect results. Also, discuss that grief may lead to reflection rather than active behavior, unlike guilt.

6. The sample is young and well educated, which may limit generalizability. Discuss how this could affect eco guilt or environmental actions.

Reviewer #2: This paper examines how eco-anxiety, eco-guilt, and eco-grief relate to pro-environmental behavior in a Dutch and German sample using mediation and moderated mediation analyses. Its main strength is that it puts these variables into one model and finds an interesting result around eco-guilt instead of only reporting simple correlations. The main issues are the cross-sectional design, the use of translated but not yet validated measures, and some interpretations that go beyond what the analyses can firmly support.

1. The paper asks a clear and meaningful question, and the overall model is worth studying. I like that Section 1.4 lays out the hypotheses clearly and that Fig. 1 makes the proposed relationships easy to follow. This gives the paper a solid structure from the start.

2. The strongest part of the manuscript is the eco-guilt result. In Section 3.2.1 and Tables 4 and 5, the indirect effect through eco-guilt is negative, even though the simple correlations are positive, which makes this finding genuinely interesting. At the same time, this part needs a clearer explanation because many readers may struggle to understand what this pattern really means.

3. I think the interpretation sometimes goes too far beyond the evidence. The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot support causal or sequential claims strongly, yet parts of Sections 4.2 and 4.6 move in that direction. The discussion of a possible S-shaped pattern and the idea of eco-guilt acting like a confounder are interesting, but they would need stronger statistical support.

4. The main limitations need to be taken more seriously in the framing of the conclusions. The sample was gathered through convenience and snowball sampling, the mean age was 29.3, most participants were female, and the translated Dutch and German scales were not yet validated. Because of this, the findings are promising, but they should be presented more cautiously and not generalized too broadly.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Exploring the relationships between eco-anxiety, eco-guilt, eco-grief, and pro-environmental behavior in the Dutch and German population: A cross-sectional study

PONE-D-25-59455R1

Dear Dr. Petkovski,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Zhengmao Li

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.-->

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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-->2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #1: The authors have fixed the issues from the first review, and the paper is much clearer now. The idea that eco guilt works in a non linear way makes more sense than calling it a confounder. The methods are explained better, with a clear translation process and the addition of VIF, which makes the results more reliable. The discussion is also stronger, especially the idea that ecovanxiety can be helpful and the step by step path from grief to reflection to anxiety to guilt. The authors are careful with their claims and clearly mention the limits of using Dutch and German samples. Overall, the paper is well written and gives useful insights into why people act in pro environmental ways. For future work, it would be good to test this model over time to better understand how these emotions develop.

Reviewer #2: Dear Author, thank you for your efforts in addressing my comment. I really appreciate your time and effort.

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-->7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.-->

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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