Parental Mental Well-Being and Frequency of Adult-Child Nature Visits: The Mediating Roles of Parents’ Perceived Barriers

Abstract

Regular access to green space has been shown to provide several health benefits for children. However, children today spend less time outdoors. Thus, it has become important to understand what drives and limits children’s activities in nature. Based on a Finnish online survey of 1463 parents of children aged 2–7 conducted in 2019, the current study examined parents’ perceived barriers to visiting nature with their children. It also examined how parental mental well-being is related to families’ frequency of nature visits, and whether this association is mediated by different categories of parents’ perceived barriers. Eleven out of 12 barriers were largely perceived by parents as reasons that did not prevent them from visiting nature with their children. Next, factor analysis indicated a three-factor solution to the barriers. The results of a multiple mediation analysis showed that better parental mental well-being was associated with more frequent adult-child nature visits, and this relationship was partially mediated by a “lack of competence and logistics” and a “lack of time and interest”, but not by “insecurity and fear”. The results indicated that parents with poor mental well-being were more likely to perceive barriers to visiting nature, which in turn appeared to be related to a higher likelihood of having children who visited nature less frequently.

Interactions with Nature, Good for the Mind and Body: A Narrative Review

“…Many researchers have studied the relationship between intentional interactions with nature and mental health. Results from their research suggest that intentionally interacting with nature is positively associated with mental wellbeing [ 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 ], mood [ 97 , 98 ], calmness and wakefulness [ 99 ], subjective wellbeing [ 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 ], positive affect [ 95 , 96 , 104 , 105 ], quality of life [ 106 , 107 , 108 ], vigor [ 98 ], mindfulness [ 105 ], satisfaction with life [ 109 , 110 ], vitality [ 111 ], happiness [ 112 , 113 ], relaxation [ 114 ], and restorativeness [ 115 ]. Intentionally interacting with nature has been inversely associated with depressive symptoms [ 116 ], depression [ 95 , 96 , 98 , 106 , 110 , 117 ], anxiety [ 97 , 110 ], stress [ 94 , 95 , 96 , 105 , 118 ], negative affect [ 94 , 95 , 96 , 104 , 105 ], anger [ 97 ...…”

Can Campus Green Spaces Be Restorative? A Case Study from Tanzania

“…The (S)WEMWBS is made of seven questions, and each item is scored on a 5-scale range (1 = "not at all" to 5 = "all the time"). Therefore, higher scores reflect better mental health states [44,[113][114][115][116][117][118].…”