Mental health

Less time spent outdoors is associated with both a decrease in health among youth and fewer pro-environmental behaviors. Recent studies have evaluated how youth connect with nature, determining that a consumerism attitude is responsible for their lack of environmental knowledge. Research argues that consumerism in the United States promotes materialism and discourages people from considering the scarcity of natural resources. As a result, younger generations may prefer material goods to environmental conservation.

Adolescents today experience increasing amounts of stress and deal with more mental health issues and higher levels of mental fatigue than previous generations. Although many practitioners and researchers believe that interacting with or being in nature has positive impacts on health and wellbeing, past research has shown this relationship to be more complex than one might imagine. Teenagers, for example, can have a multidimensional, conflicted, and, at times, negative view of the environment in comparison with that of younger children or adults.

Many educators consider developing a resilience mindset to be a key goal of environmental education. Applying the resilience frame to climate change, one of the most pressing issues facing the world today, is a natural extension that fits within the scope of many EE programs. Ideas of resilience can provide skills that help people adapt to climate-related changes and disasters.

Research has long supported the idea that outdoor experiences can support various environmental education (EE) outcomes, including environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Researchers and practitioners view such outcomes as important elements of environmental literacy, yet there is some contention as to whether traditional, school-based EE and informal, outdoor EE function differently when fostering those outcomes.

Over time, the purpose of botanic gardens has evolved such that most botanic gardens are focused on plant conservation and the cultivation of native species. For the past several decades, botanic gardens have also served as venues for environmental education programs. It was only recently that educators recognized the potential for botanic gardens to promote social inclusion. Environmental education researchers have criticized traditional environmental education programs at botanic gardens for catering to specific audiences who tend to be older, middle to upper class, and white.

Significant research exists that has explored the connections between experiences in nature and further communication about those experiences. These communications include verbal and digital images, shared with friends, family, or future self. Findings show that exposure to nature inspires consequent communications. Much of that research also looks at how these experiences and communications affect a person's perceptions of the environment, emotions, and pro-environmental behaviors. Communication allows for development of experiences and gives the person time and space to create meaning.

Poor mental health and self-esteem often continue throughout a lifetime, and those with low self-esteem may be less able to cope with stress and more prone to depression and anxiety. While previous studies show a relationship between exposure to nature and improved well-being and overall health, most of those studies are qualitative or descriptive. This study provides quantitative evidence about the relationship between wilderness expeditions and self-esteem, as well as connectedness to nature among adolescents.

Many environmental education researchers have argued that people's connection to the places they live (or places they care about), often termed a “sense of place,” is an important aspect of human identity, psychological health, and sustainability. The authors of this paper argue that teachers should help students build a sense of place (a process the authors call “place-making”), and that some important place-making tools have been ignored in the modern educational system.

Research has shown that late childhood and early adolescence are critical periods for sparking an interest in global environmental issues. However, learning about global problems can also trigger feelings of anxiety, helplessness, and hopelessness. This may be especially true for children, who have fewer strategies for dealing with negative emotions than adults.

Can visiting a natural space result in feelings of restoration, such as calmness, relaxation, refreshment, or revitalization? Established literature corroborates the intuition that there are restorative health benefits to visiting natural spaces, but these findings are complicated and mixed. Previous theoretical work with Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and Psychophysiological Stress Recovery Theory (PSRT) have hypothesized that visiting nature can lead to changes in emotional states and vitality.