using photovoice to foster a student vision for natural spaces on a college campus in the Pacific Northwest United States

Natural Environments in University Campuses and Students’ Well-Being

“…We highlight the relevance of students' participation and engagement in activities for promoting student wellness and mental health, but also on planning land and nature use [38], on promoting campus sustainability [40], and natural area stewardship. Students' perspective is particularly important in the face of this serious mental health crisis [41], as it may foster student trust, social cohesion [37], engagement, and learning that can be leveraged beyond a particular crisis to support longer-term sustainability goals.…”

“…One study used a NatureDose app with GPS and a phone sensor in the student cell phone [11], and one study was a pre-post-test randomized experiment with a 360-degree video platform via an online survey [16]. The research by Reese et al [38] used a photovoice technique with a photvoicekit to foster students to take images on class outings, then later host a photo exhibit on campus and use their vision for discussing a variety of ways that underdeveloped greenspaces on campus might be utilized to promote student physical and mental health [38]. Three of the articles described results of interventions on campus such as the creation of a sensory garden [40], therapeutic sensory garden [38], short greenspace interventions [9,37], and forest activities [14].…”

“…Nine of the articles described results of interventions with students aiming to verify if natural environments could improve their mental health and well-being. Three of them used living experience in healing [40] and sensory gardens for quality of life [38], stress reduction, well-being and productivity [24]. Forest activities [14], trail and digital detox [9], and nature exposure were associated with positive moods [11] and to decreased test anxiety [26].…”

Exploring Student Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Context of Campus Spaces

“…34 2020;Yildirim et al, 2020), education psychology and counselling (Marchand et al, 2014;Reese et al, 2020), teaching and education in medicine (Bowrey & Kidd, 2014), environmental and public health (Cedeno Laurent et al, 2020), environmental design (Foo & Mavrogianni, 2018), and sociology (Licite & Janmere, 2018). This was reflective of the breadth of disciplines and approaches researching the built environment in the literature.…”

“…Accordingly, I charted three studies that focused primarily on indirect influences with key aspects involving emotional processing, prevalence of mental health issues, or stress prevention (Bowrey & Kidd, 2014;Reese et al, 2020). Four studies focused on direct influences of thermal comfort, light/sound/temperature, and general design and layout on student mental health (Cedeno Laurent et al, 2020;Foo & Mavrogianni, 2018;Licite & Janmere, 2018;Yildirim et al, 2011).…”