Nature Connection, Mental Health and Well-being Study

How can nature connection influence children and young people’s mental well-being?

This study looks at young people’s relationship to nature, mood and well-being. By nature, we mean all types of natural environment and all the plants and animals living in them.

Background

Young people experience many changes during adolescence, emotionally, socially, and physically. Alongside these changes, this is a developmental period when young people may be struggling with their mood and wellbeing. This also coincides at a time when young people report a decrease in their connection to nature, representing a ‘teenage dip’ in nature connectedness’. By establishing a meaningful connection to, and engaging with, nature, may support young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Study

This study aims to examine the relationship between nature connection, mental health, and well-being in young people aged 11-18 years via online surveys. To understand this relationship, it is important to identify factors that impact young people’s nature connection and how this links to their mood and well-being.’

The online survey contains questions about experiences with nature, mood, and thoughts/feelings about the environment. The survey will take around 30 minutes to complete. Then, there is another very similar survey to complete some months later to see what has changed.

In this study, young people are not just participants, but active contributors. We worked with a member of the Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG), Aanya, who helped us to review the script and then recorded a voiceover for our short video about the study.

Aanya’s experience of working with the research team on the study video can be found on the NeurOX YPAG website here.

Get involved

For any questions about the study please email: e.tupitsa@reading.ac.uk

Important note

Young people under 16 years will be required to have parental consent to take part