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Visiting Urban Green Space and Orientation to Nature Is Associated with Better Wellbeing during COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Brenda B. Lin

    (CSIRO Land & Water, GPO Box 2583, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia)

  • Chia-chen Chang

    (Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 94720, USA)

  • Erik Andersson

    (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 114 19 Stockholm, Sweden
    Ecosystems and Environment Research Program, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
    Research Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2531, South Africa)

  • Thomas Astell-Burt

    (School of Health and Society, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
    Population Wellbeing and Environment Research Lab (PowerLab), Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia)

  • John Gardner

    (CSIRO Land & Water, GPO Box 2583, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia)

  • Xiaoqi Feng

    (Population Wellbeing and Environment Research Lab (PowerLab), Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
    School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
    The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, NSW 2042, Australia)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely challenged mental health and wellbeing. However, research has consistently reinforced the value of spending time in green space for better health and wellbeing outcomes. Factors such as an individual’s nature orientation, used to describe one’s affinity to nature, may influence an individual’s green space visitation behaviour, and thus influence the wellbeing benefits gained. An online survey in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia (n = 2084), deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2021), explores if nature experiences and nature orientation are positively associated with personal wellbeing and if increased amounts of nature experiences are associated with improvement in wellbeing in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that both yard and public green space visitation, as well as nature orientation scores, were correlated with high personal wellbeing scores, and individuals who spent more time in green space compared to the previous year also experienced a positive change in their health and wellbeing. Consistently, people with stronger nature orientations are also more likely to experience positive change. We also found that age was positively correlated to a perceived improvement in wellbeing over the year, and income was negatively correlated with a decreased change in wellbeing over the year, supporting other COVID-19 research that has shown that the effects of COVID-19 lifestyle changes were structurally unequal, with financially more established individuals experiencing better wellbeing. Such results highlight that spending time in nature and having high nature orientation are important for gaining those important health and wellbeing benefits and may provide a buffer for wellbeing during stressful periods of life that go beyond sociodemographic factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Brenda B. Lin & Chia-chen Chang & Erik Andersson & Thomas Astell-Burt & John Gardner & Xiaoqi Feng, 2023. "Visiting Urban Green Space and Orientation to Nature Is Associated with Better Wellbeing during COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-12, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:3559-:d:1071628
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertram, Christine & Rehdanz, Katrin, 2015. "The role of urban green space for human well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 139-152.
    2. Samuelsson, Karl & Barthel, Stephan & Colding, Johan & Macassa, Gloria & Giusti, Matteo, 2020. "Urban nature as a source of resilience during social distancing amidst the coronavirus pandemic," OSF Preprints 3wx5a, Center for Open Science.
    3. Xiaoqi Feng & Thomas Astell-Burt, 2022. "Perceived Qualities, Visitation and Felt Benefits of Preferred Nature Spaces during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia: A Nationally-Representative Cross-Sectional Study of 2940 Adults," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, June.
    4. Thomas Astell-Burt & Xiaoqi Feng, 2021. "Time for ‘Green’ during COVID-19? Inequities in Green and Blue Space Access, Visitation and Felt Benefits," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-21, March.
    5. Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie & Phebe Asantewaa Owusu, 2021. "Global assessment of environment, health and economic impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 5005-5015, April.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Argyro Anna Kanelli & Margarita Kokkinaki & Marios-Dimitrios Sinvare & Chrisovalantis Malesios & Panayiotis G. Dimitrakopoulos & Olga-Ioanna Kalantzi, 2023. "Keep Calm and Go Out: Urban Nature Exposure, Mental Health, and Perceived Value during the COVID-19 Lockdown," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-20, May.

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