LB 15-173 - CANCELLED - Nature exposure and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background/Question/Methods:

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and recent studies suggest that people around the world increased their engagement with the natural environment during this time, particularly closer to home. Thus, the pandemic created a unique opportunity to consider how time with nature might affect mental health and well-being during challenging events. Specifically, we ask: How is psychological connection with nature associated with well-being during the pandemic? Is nature exposure associated with better well-being during the pandemic? Are some types of nature engagement more strongly associated with well-being than others? We looked at three types of nature engagement: nearby nature, nature excursions and nature through media and their effect on four measures of well-being: loneliness, rumination, pandemic emotional impact, and mental health. This study relied on a cross-sectional online survey of adults over the age of 18 residing in the United States from two primary groups: (1) Participants involved in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s science and nature programs; and (2) members of the general public, half of whom self-identified as someone who chooses to spend leisure time in nature and half of whom reported they choose not to spend their leisure time in nature.

Results/Conclusions:

In total we received 3,271 completed surveys. The two populations surveyed were different; the Lab of Ornithology group was older, skewed more female, more educated, with higher income, and with higher proportion of white respondents. Aggregated across the two groups, we found that the psychological connection to nature was associated with less loneliness and better mental health. Nature engagement in general was a consistent predictor of well-being though to varying degrees for each of our four dependent variables. Engagement with nearby nature reveals a near-consistent association with better well-being – i.e., less rumination, less emotional impact of the pandemic, and better mental health; though no significant association with loneliness. In contrast, and contrary to our hypotheses, the pattern was generally reversed for engagement with nature via excursions and via media. Our findings suggest that promoting opportunities to increase engagement with nature locally can enhance human well-being. We argue that even small, regular doses of nature can contribute to the improvement of a wide range of mental health outcomes and may be particularly salient during challenging events.