Progress on Relationship between Natural Environment and Mental Health in China

Abstract

Natural environment has a positive effect on individual mental health, which can be proved by many studies, both domestic and overseas. At present, some sunrise industries such as forest healthcare and natural tourism are booming in China. However, academically speaking, there’s still a lack of systematic summary of researches on the relationship between natural environment and mental health in China, as well as a lack of comparison with foreign research achievements, which hinders the further development of the field to some extent in China. Therefore, this paper reviews the literature systematically by using the database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), in order to understand the research status in China and find out its gap with foreign studies. The results show that the study in this area in China can be divided into three stages, namely the embryonic stage (prior to 2000), the start-up stage (2001–2008) and the stage of initial development (since 2009); disciplines involved in the study mainly cover forestry, agriculture, psychology, medicine, sports science, tourism, ecology, education and geography. In general, the research in China concentrates on four topics: ecological psychology, the impact of natural ecological environment on mental health, the impact of artificial ecological environment on mental health, as well as the impact of natural tourism on mental health. Based on the findings, a future study framework and some main study lines are suggested: firstly, a systematic study on the relationship between natural environment and mental health in other countries should be conducted; secondly, factors affecting mental health in natural environment should be identified; thirdly, an evaluation system of psychological effect of natural environment should be established; finally, the utilization modes and influencing mechanism of natural environment should be explored.

The impact of neighborhood mental health on the mental health of older adults

“…The third is the impact of natural factors on mental health. For example, researchers have discussed the impact of the natural environment and weather on mental health [19,20]. However, natural factors are not the focus of their paper, so they will not be repeated.…”

Tourism as a Tool in Nature-Based Mental Health: Progress and Prospects Post-Pandemic

“…In China, there is a new and rapidly expanding government program, apparently the only national-scale, cross-portfolio attempt at nature-based mental health therapy [ 72 , 73 ]. Initiated by the national forestry agency under the name of Forest Therapy Hubs, it has now been brought into a joint initiative by national health, tourism, and land management agencies, under a title which translates as Healthy Life Bases, effectively nature therapy centres.…”

A Systematic Review of Horticultural Therapy’s Influence on Chinese Older Adults’ Psychosocial Wellbeing

“…The long history of appreciating gardens and bonsais in China ( Chen, 2009 ) also provides a mass basis for HT to be widely adopted. However, the concept of HT as a therapeutic method was only newly introduced in China ( Li, 2000a , 2000b ), and is still underdeveloped ( Zhu et al, 2021 ) and no published reviews have yet specifically evaluated HT in a Chinese setting.…”