How Contact with Nature Affects Our Emotions and Coping Skills

Greg Howard
17th February, 2024

How Contact with Nature Affects Our Emotions and Coping Skills
The relationship between time spent in nature and mental health is increasingly recognised, but understanding how nature impacts our wellbeing remains a complex question. While many people intuitively feel better after a walk in the park, pinpointing the specific mechanisms at play is crucial for developing targeted interventions. Researchers at the University of Washington recently investigated whether the way we manage our emotions – our ‘emotion regulation’ strategies – could explain the link between nature exposure and mental wellbeing[1]. The study, conducted in 2022 with 600 adults across the U.S., used an online survey to gather data on participants’ nature contact, their emotional state (specifically, levels of emotional wellbeing and illbeing), and how they typically cope with difficult emotions. Emotional wellbeing was measured as positive emotional states, while emotional illbeing encompassed negative emotional states like anxiety and depression. The core idea was to test whether increased exposure to nature leads to healthier ways of dealing with emotions, and whether this improvement in emotional coping, in turn, contributes to better mental health. Emotion regulation isn’t a single skill, but a collection of strategies. Some are considered ‘adaptive’ – helpful in the long run – like consciously reappraising a situation to see it in a different light, or actively problem-solving. Others are ‘maladaptive’ – potentially harmful – such as ruminating on negative thoughts or trying to suppress unwanted emotions. The results showed a clear association: more frequent contact with nature was linked to lower levels of emotional illbeing and higher levels of emotional wellbeing. Crucially, the study also found that people who spent more time in nature tended to use more adaptive emotion regulation strategies and fewer maladaptive ones. Statistical analysis, using a technique called structural equation modelling, confirmed that this shift in emotion regulation partially explained the positive effects of nature on mental health. In other words, nature appears to benefit our mental state, in part, by helping us to manage our emotions more effectively. This finding builds on earlier research highlighting the importance of emotion regulation in mental health. For example, a study[2] found that maladaptive strategies like rumination and thought suppression were strongly linked to symptoms of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, while adaptive strategies like reappraisal and problem-solving were protective. The current study extends this by suggesting that nature contact may be a way to promote those adaptive strategies. Interestingly, the study also revealed a ‘sweet spot’ for the duration of nature contact. The benefits of spending time in nature increased up to a certain point, but then levelled off. This suggests that simply spending more and more time outdoors doesn’t necessarily lead to ever-greater improvements in wellbeing. There may be diminishing returns, or other factors that become more important after a certain threshold is reached. Furthermore, the findings align with research demonstrating the restorative effects of natural environments[3]. This earlier work showed that exposure to sounds of nature, in particular, can promote physiological recovery from stress, activating the parasympathetic nervous system – the part of the nervous system responsible for ‘rest and digest’ functions. This physiological calming could create a more conducive state for practicing adaptive emotion regulation. The use of mobile EEG technology[4] to measure brain activity in natural environments also provides supporting evidence. That study found that walking in green spaces was associated with lower frustration and higher levels of ‘meditation’ – a state often linked to mindful emotion regulation. The current study doesn’t directly measure brain activity, but the observed link between nature contact and adaptive emotion regulation is consistent with these neurological findings. Finally, the study reinforces the broader understanding that access to green spaces is beneficial for mental health[5]. That research, which followed a large group of women over several years, found that living in areas with more vegetation was associated with a lower risk of depression. The University of Washington study adds to this by identifying a potential mechanism – emotion regulation – through which green spaces exert their protective effects.

EnvironmentHealthMental Health

References

Main Study

1) Associations of nature contact with emotional ill-being and well-being: the role of emotion regulation.

Published 16th February, 2024

https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2024.2316199

Related Studies

2) Specificity of cognitive emotion regulation strategies: a transdiagnostic examination.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2010.06.002

3) Inducing physiological stress recovery with sounds of nature in a virtual reality forest--results from a pilot study.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2013.05.023

4) The urban brain: analysing outdoor physical activity with mobile EEG.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2012-091877

5) Greenness and Depression Incidence among Older Women.

https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1229


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