Outdoor activities help improve adolescent mental health and well-being during pandemic

North Carolina State University study found that outdoor play and nature-based activities helped alleviate some of the negative mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in adolescents .

The researchers said the results, published in the International Journal of Environmental and Public Health Research, indicate that outdoor games and nature-based activities are a tool to help teens cope with major stressors like the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as future natural disasters and other stressors global. The researchers also point to the mental health implications of restricting adolescents’ outdoor recreation opportunities and the need to improve access to the outdoors.

Families should be encouraged that building models in outdoor recreation can give children tools to weather the storms to come. There are things going on in life, and getting kids out regularly is an easy way to build mental resilience. “

Kathryn Stevenson, study co-author and assistant professor of parks, recreation and tourism management at NC State

In the survey, conducted from April 30 to June 15, 2020, researchers asked 624 adolescents aged 10 to 18 to report their participation in outdoor recreation before the pandemic and after social distancing measures were in place. force in the United States. They also asked teens about their subjective well-being, a measure of happiness and mental health.

The results revealed that the pandemic was impacting the well-being of many adolescents in the survey, with nearly 52 percent of adolescents reporting a decline in subjective well-being. They also found a decrease in teens’ ability to go out, with 64% of teens saying their participation in outdoor activities declined in the first few months of the pandemic. Despite these declines in outdoor participation, nearly 77% of teens surveyed believed spending time outdoors helped them cope with the stress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We know that many outdoor activities that children participate in take place at school, in youth sports leagues or clubs, and these things were put on hold during the pandemic,” the lead author said. study, Brent Jackson, a graduate student of fishing. , Conservation and Wildlife Biology Program at NC State. “Based on our study, they were going out less and less – we think that not being in school and that these activities really helped.”

When they broke down recreation by type, they found a 41.6% drop in participation in outdoor activities such as sports, biking, walking, running or skating, while activities based on on nature such as camping, hiking, fishing, hunting and boating have plummeted. by 39.7 percent; and family outdoor activities declined by 28.6 percent. In the first few months of the pandemic, around 60% of teens said they could go out once a week or less.

“We saw declines in all three types of outdoor recreation participation,” Jackson said. “Nature-based activities had the lowest participation before and during the pandemic, which may indicate the need for better access to natural spaces in general.”

The results showed that trends in wellness and outdoor recreation were related, and the negative trends observed during the pandemic for wellness and participation in outdoor recreation were observed regardless of race. , gender, age, type of income community or geographic region of adolescents. Children who did not go out as much saw their well-being decline, but those who went out before and during the pandemic were able to maintain higher levels of well-being.

“This tells us that outdoor recreation can promote children’s well-being when it does, and can potentially harm well-being when it doesn’t,” Stevenson said.

Teens who had high rates of outdoor play before the pandemic were more resistant to negative changes in social well-being. Those who went out frequently before the pandemic were more likely to experience a smaller decline in their well-being, regardless of their involvement during the pandemic. And, for teens who were able to play outdoors or get involved in nature-based activities during the pandemic, their well-being was on par with pre-pandemic levels.

“Children who were able to continue to participate in outdoor play and nature-based activities had levels of subjective well-being similar to what they were before the pandemic, but children who were not able to participate have seen much larger declines, ”Jackson said. .

The study results also indicate strategies for helping children navigate future global stressful events, as well as the importance of ensuring access to outdoor recreation. They help define the risks associated with policies that reduce children’s ability to exit.

“Getting out and participating in activities that provide exposure to nature, physical activity and safe social interactions during the pandemic have been really powerful in improving children’s resilience,” Jackson said.