IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i13p6814-d581846.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Jasmine Gustafsson

    (Public Health Research Program, Folkhälsan Research Center, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland)

  • Ann Ojala

    (Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), FI-00791 Helsinki, Finland)

  • Pauliina Hiltunen

    (Public Health Research Program, Folkhälsan Research Center, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland)

  • Elina Engberg

    (Public Health Research Program, Folkhälsan Research Center, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland
    Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland)

  • Annika Wiklund-Engblom

    (Folkhälsans Förbund, FI-65100 Vaasa, Finland)

  • Nea Törnwall

    (Folkhälsans Förbund, FI-65100 Vaasa, Finland)

  • Eva Roos

    (Public Health Research Program, Folkhälsan Research Center, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland
    Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
    Department of Food Studies, Nutrition and Dietetics, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden)

  • Carola Ray

    (Public Health Research Program, Folkhälsan Research Center, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland
    Department of Food and Nutrition, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Jasmine Gustafsson & Ann Ojala & Pauliina Hiltunen & Elina Engberg & Annika Wiklund-Engblom & Nea Törnwall & Eva Roos & Carola Ray, 2021. "Parental Mental Well-Being and Frequency of Adult-Child Nature Visits: The Mediating Roles of Parents’ Perceived Barriers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-12, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:13:p:6814-:d:581846
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/6814/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/6814/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Suvi Määttä & Carola Ray & Henna Vepsäläinen & Elviira Lehto & Riikka Kaukonen & Anna Ylönen & Eva Roos, 2018. "Parental Education and Pre-School Children’s Objectively Measured Sedentary Time: The Role of Co-Participation in Physical Activity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-14, February.
    2. Ningyuan Guo & Tzu Tsun Luk & Sai Yin Ho & Jung Jae Lee & Chen Shen & John Oliffe & Sophia Siu-Chee Chan & Tai Hing Lam & Man Ping Wang, 2020. "Problematic Smartphone Use and Mental Health in Chinese Adults: A Population-Based Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-10, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Argyro Anna Kanelli & Maria Lydia Vardaka & Chrisovaladis Malesios & Zainab Jamidu Katima & Olga-Ioanna Kalantzi, 2024. "Can Campus Green Spaces Be Restorative? A Case Study from Tanzania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-21, January.
    2. Dahlia Stott & DeAndra Forde & Chetan Sharma & Jonathan M. Deutsch & Michael Bruneau & Jennifer A. Nasser & Mara Z. Vitolins & Brandy-Joe Milliron, 2024. "Interactions with Nature, Good for the Mind and Body: A Narrative Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(3), pages 1-26, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lingling Gao & Yiqun Gan & Amanda Whittal & Sonia Lippke, 2020. "Problematic Internet Use and Perceived Quality of Life: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Study Investigating Work-Time and Leisure-Time Internet Use," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-15, June.
    2. Olatz Lopez-Fernandez, 2021. "Emerging Health and Education Issues Related to Internet Technologies and Addictive Problems," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-19, January.
    3. Wenjie Li & Linting Zhang & Ning Jia & Feng Kong, 2021. "Validation of the Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motives for Activities-Revised Scale in Chinese Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-10, April.
    4. Elina Hasanen & Henriikka Koivukoski & Lauri Kortelainen & Hanna Vehmas & Arja Sääkslahti, 2021. "Sociodemographic Correlates of Parental Co-Participation in Digital Media Use and Physical Play of Preschool-Age Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-19, May.
    5. Seung-Yup Lee & Hae Kook Lee & Jung-Seok Choi & Soo-young Bang & Min-Hyeon Park & Kyu-In Jung & Yong-Sil Kweon, 2020. "The Matthew Effect in Recovery from Smartphone Addiction in a 6-Month Longitudinal Study of Children and Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-17, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:13:p:6814-:d:581846. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.