Mental, physical and social health benefits of immersive nature-experiences for children and adolescents: A systematic review and quality assessment of the evidence
Immersive nature-experiences are linked to positive changes in children's mental, physical, and social health
Two questions framed this systematic review of the literature: (1) How does immersive nature-experience influence mental, physical and social health outcomes in children and adolescents? (2) What is the quality of the evidence at an outcome level? Immersive nature-experience was defined as “non-competitive activities, both sedentary and active, occurring in natural environments removed from everyday environments.”
Eighty-four papers met the inclusion criteria, which consisted of (a) presenting one or more empirical original studies, (b) written in Danish, English, Norwegian, or Swedish language, (c) published between January 2004 and May 2017, and (d) focused on child and adolescent populations. The included papers presented outcomes of 90 different studies. Sixty percent of these studies indicated positive mental, physical, or social outcomes, with psychosocial and cognitive benefits being the most dominant. The targeted groups ranged in age from 3-18 and included children and youth with special social and emotional needs, such as autism, behavioral challenges, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders. The targeted groups also included children from low socio-economic backgrounds. The length, type, and focus of the immersive nature-experiences varied considerably from study to study.
Overall findings of this review provide some support for the understanding that immersive nature-experiences can promote the mental, physical and social development of children and youth. The benefits of immersion in nature for children and youth identified through this review include improved self-esteem, self-efficacy, resilience and academic and cognitive performance. Findings about benefits in the areas of self-concept, problem solving, and mood were inconclusive. Various factors –including the influence of intervention time span — may have contributed to the inconclusive results. For self-concept and mood-related benefits, for example, longer intervention programs reported more positive outcomes than shorter intervention programs. The quality of evidence presented in this review is considered low across types of outcomes. Quality-related concerns included small sample sizes, intervention heterogeneity, and risk of bias. Suggestions for further research with methodological improvements are offered.
Citation
Mygind, L., Kjeldsted, E., Hartmeyer, R., Mygind, E., Bølling, M., Bents, P., (2019). Mental, physical and social health benefits of immersive nature-experiences for children and adolescents: A systematic review and quality assessment of the evidence. Health & Place, 58
