Young Adults Childhood Experiences of Nature and Links with Mental Well-Being

There is a significant amount of literature which makes claims, or provides some evidence for, the impact of nature on mental health and well-being (Keniger, Gaston, Irvine, & Fuller, 2013; Elizabeth K. Nisbet, Zelenski, & Murphy, 2011). Subjective nature connectedness is a strong predictor of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours that may also be positively associated with subjective well-being (Capaldi, Dopko, & Zelenski, 2014). Most of this literature, however, tends to focus on immediate impacts of, for example, walking in a forest or other green area (Ward Thompson, Roe, & Aspinall, 2013). Exposure to green space, or natural areas, have been suggested as having cognitive, physical, mental and spiritual impacts (Bell et al., 2008; Russell et al., 2013).

Similarly there are studies which have looked at the idea of nature connectedness, or nature relatedness, and factors which influence the degree of nature connectedness (Zylstra, Knight, Esler, & Le Grange, 2014; Zylstra, 2014). One of the proposed contributory factors to sense of nature connectedness has been childhood experiences in nature (Chawla, 2007; Sebba, 1991). A greater sense of nature connectedness, it is suggested, leads to more pro-environmental behaviours (Restall & Conrad, 2015; Schultz, 2000) .

The studies outlined here were intended to explore some of these ideas and to add to the data and literature in this area.