Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Young people in Canada feel less connected to nature and spend less time outdoors than ever before. This is cause for concern as nature has long been viewed as therapeutic for health. In children, exposure to nature has been associated with a range of positive physical health outcomes, including increased physical activity and decreased weight gain. In adults, exposure to nature has been shown to increase pleasant feelings, improve overall mood, and reduce anger, fear, stress, and anxiety. My proposed study will examine the effects of outdoor time and connectedness to nature on mental and emotional health outcomes in Canadian adolescents. These effects have not been studied previously on a population basis. We will employ a mixed methods design with a quantitative component followed by a qualitative component. The quantitative analysis will use data collected as part of a large national survey of Canadian students in grades six to ten (Health Behaviours in School-aged Children survey) to quantify associations between time spent playing outdoors, the importance of feeling connected to nature, and indicators of emotional health. In order to increase understanding of the quantitative results, the qualitative component will explore perceptions of nature and emotional health in focus groups of Canadian youth of the same age as the survey respondents. The proposed study will address an important gap in the Canadian paediatric literature on the role of the outdoors in adolescent emotional health and the findings will inform Canadian public health strategies relating to children's exposure to nature.