Are Community Gardening and Horticultural Interventions Beneficial for Psychosocial Well-Being? A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Recent literature has revealed the positive effect of gardening on human health; however, empirical evidence on the effects of gardening-based programs on psychosocial well-being is scant. This meta-analysis aims to examine the scientific literature on the effect of community gardening or horticultural interventions on a variety of outcomes related to psychosocial well-being, such as social cohesion, networking, social support, and trust. From 383 bibliographic records retrieved (from 1975 to 2019), seven studies with a total of 22 effect sizes were selected on the basis of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Meta-analytic findings on 11 comparisons indicate a positive and moderate effect of horticultural or gardening interventions on psychosocial well-being. Moderation analysis shows a greater effect size in individualistic than collectivistic cultures. A greater effect size was also observed in studies involving community gardening compared to horticultural intervention. Nevertheless, an effect of publication bias and study heterogeneity has been detected. Despite the presence of a large number of qualitative studies on the effect of horticulture/gardening on psychosocial well-being, quantitative studies are lacking. There is a strong need to advance into further high-quality studies on this research topic given that gardening has promising applied implications for human health, the community, and sustainable city management.

Association between indoor-outdoor green features and psychological health during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: A cross-sectional nationwide study

“…Mediation variables could intervene, such as physical activity carried out in private green spaces that would lead to relevant mental health benefits ( Dadvand et al, 2016 ). Likewise, we did not consider the potential mediating effect of gardening activities in private green spaces, which has been proven to generate benefits on health and well-being ( Clatworthy et al, 2013 ; Spano et al, 2020b ; Yeo et al, 2020 ). Further studies addressing these matters are strongly recommended.…”

Effectiveness of Horticultural Therapy in People with Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Previous studies focused on the subgroup analysis of the characteristics of activities and populations [23][24][25][26], not on the environment. This study fills this gap and demonstrates that non-hospital environments have a better therapeutic effect on all indicators than hospital environments.…”

“…Meta-analyses can also be used to draw new conclusions from previous studies by investigating the different impacts of different conditions and dividing the studies into subgroups. Previous studies with different research foci can be further divided into several subgroups according to the type of activity (participatory horticultural therapy and ornamental horticultural activities [23]; horticultural intervention and community gardening [24]; raising plants, plant decoration, and combination activities [25]), participants (gardeners and non-gardeners [24,26] and different age groups [25]), country (U.S., U.K., and Asia [24]), respondents (patients or non-patients [26]), gardening (therapy vs. nontherapy [26]), subject types (child, teenager, adult, or elderly [26]), etc. Overall, these studies focused on the characteristics of activities and populations.…”

Group Membership and Social and Personal Identities as Psychosocial Coping Resources to Psychological Consequences of the COVID-19 Confinement

“…Extensive research has shown that one of the key resources that flow from shared social identities and group memberships are social support exchange opportunities, that is, interaction contexts for receiving, giving, and benefit from both social actions [ 5 , 24 , 25 ]. Empirical evidence in different contexts revealed that receiving social support was generally beneficial for psychosocial health [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ], although there were some inconsistent results [ 17 ], and also that providing it might be even more beneficial than receiving it [ 31 , 32 ].…”