Moving beyond Green: Exploring the Relationship of Environment Type and Indicators of Perceived Environmental Quality on Emotional Well-Being following Group Walks

Abstract

Against the backdrop of increasing interest in the relationship between Nature and health, this study examined the effect of perceived environment type and indicators of perceived environmental quality on short-term emotional well-being following outdoor group walks. Participants (n = 127) of a national group walk program completed pre- and post-walk questionnaires for each walk attended (n = 1009) within a 13-week study period. Multilevel linear modelling was used to examine the main and moderation effects. To isolate the environmental from the physical activity elements, analyses controlled for walk duration and perceived intensity. Analyses revealed that perceived restorativeness and perceived walk intensity predicted greater positive affect and happiness following an outdoor group walk. Perceived restorativeness and perceived bird biodiversity predicted post-walk negative affect. Perceived restorativeness moderated the relationship between perceived naturalness and positive affect. Results suggest that restorative quality of an environment may be an important element for enhancing well-being, and that perceived restorativeness and naturalness of an environment may interact to amplify positive affect. These findings highlight the importance of further research on the contribution of environment type and quality on well-being, and the need to control for effects of physical activity in green exercise research.

Perceived health benefits of managed and unmanaged meadows in a mountain biosphere reserve – an experimental study in the Austrian Alps

“…Hansmann et al (2007) and Tyrväinen et al (2014) found only limited evidence that forests have a more positive influence on human health compared to designed city parks. Marselle et al (2015) even found no relationships between perceived naturalness and post-walk emotional well-being.…”

“…In contrast, well-being was positively related to participants' perceived species richness (Carrus et al 2015;Dallimer et al 2012). However, Marselle et al (2015) found that a perceived high level of bird biodiversity correlated to a postwalk negative affect. Johansson et al (2014) presented images to analyse emotional and physiological responses to different states of biodiversity in temperate deciduous broad-leaf peri-urban forests in Sweden.…”

“…No differences between the meadows were found for perceived effects on attention restoration, stress relief and well-being (Table 3). mountain environment; earlier on-site studies comparing natural and semi-natural sites did not provide a clear picture of perceived or observed health effects depending on the degree of naturalness (Carrus et al 2013;Dallimer et al 2012;Hansmann et al 2007;Marselle et al 2015;Martens et al 2011;Tyrväinen et al 2014;Velarde et al 2007). Our results are in line with those studies which have not found empirical evidence of different health effects depending on the degree of naturalness.…”

“…Although there is a substantial amount of evidence for the restorative potential of natural areas in general, little is known about the effects of specific landscape types and of the degree of naturalness on human health and well-being (Marselle et al 2015;Velarde et al 2007). Martens et al (2011) investigated the effect on self-rated well-being of a walk through managed and less-managed forest conditions in a Swiss urban forest.…”

“…Martens et al (2011) investigated the effect on self-rated well-being of a walk through managed and less-managed forest conditions in a Swiss urban forest. Results showed that well-being increased more in the managed forest stand than in the more natural forest.…”