2024 / Health and well-being

Associations of Nature Contact with Emotional Ill-Being and Well-Being: The Role of Emotion Regulation

Citation

Bratman, G. N., Mehta, A., Olvera Alvarez, H. A., Spink, K. M., Levy, C., White, M. P., … & Gross, J. J. (2024). Associations of nature contact with emotional ill-being and well-being: the role of emotion regulation. Cognition and Emotion, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2024.2316199

Link to file

Abstract

Figure 1. Bayesian structural equation model results with frequency of nature contact, emotion regulation, and emotional ill-being and well-being.

Nature contact has associations with emotional ill-being and well-being. However, the mechanisms underlying these associations are not fully understood. We hypothesised that increased adaptive and decreased maladaptive emotion regulation strategies would be a pathway linking nature contact to ill-being and well-being. Using data from a survey of 600 U.S.-based adults administered online in 2022, we conducted structural equation modelling to test our hypotheses. We found that:

  1. Frequency of nature contact was significantly associated with lesser emotional ill-being and greater emotional well-being,
  2. Effective emotion regulation was significantly associated with lesser emotional ill-being and greater emotional well-being, and
  3. The associations of higher frequency of nature contact with these benefits were partly explained via emotion regulation.

Moreover, we found a nonlinear relationship for the associations of duration of nature contact with some outcomes, with a rise in benefits up to certain amounts of time, and a levelling off after these points. These findings support and extend previous work that demonstrates that the associations of nature contact with emotional ill-being and well-being may be partly explained by changes in emotion regulation.