Feel Better with Nature Study

Background

Spending time in nature has been shown to have a range of psychological benefits, including improved body image and mood. However, most of what we know comes from cross-sectional surveys and short lab or field experiments. As a result, there is little evidence about how nature affects people’s day-to-day experiences of body image, disordered eating, or mood. This study aimed to address this gap, by examining these associations in everyday life using an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) protocol. EMA involves sending short surveys to participants several times a day, allowing researchers to capture experiences as they naturally occur.

Research Questions / Hypotheses

We aimed to explore how body image and daily eating patterns fluctuate based on spending time in nature in everyday life. We predicted that people would report better body image and mood, as well as fewer disordered eating behaviours, after being in natural environments.

Participants

A total of 274 REP participants completed a baseline survey, and 222 of them went on to complete the EMA phase. To preserve the validity of our findings, we only analysed data from participants who completed more than 50% of their EMA surveys.

Methods

In Phase 1, participants completed a baseline survey that included demographic questions (e.g., age, gender identity, cultural background, relationship status, minority status, urban/rural residence, education level, height, and weight) and trait-based measures such as perceived stress (PSS-10) and connectedness to nature (CNS). After Phase 1, participants moved on to Phase 2, where they completed an EMA protocol using the SEMA3 smartphone app. For seven consecutive days, participants received six surveys per day between 10 am and 10 pm (a maximum of 42 surveys in total). Each survey included short measures about their recent exposure to nature and current body image (body dissatisfaction, body appreciation, functionality appreciation), mood (happiness), and disordered eating behaviours.

Results

This was a micro-longitudinal, repeated measures, and mixed design study. Using multilevel modelling, we analysed whether outcomes differed for the same participant based on nature exposure, and whether outcomes differed between participants based on individual differences (e.g., tendencies to feel stressed or connected to nature). We found that nature exposure significantly improved body image (i.e., reduced body dissatisfaction, and increased body and functionality appreciation). However, it did not significantly improve happiness or disordered eating behaviours.

Implications

Given that the majority of the previous research was cross-sectional and experimental, this study provides novel evidence that the benefits of nature exposure on body image can also be observed in daily life. A major practical implication of these results is that spending time in nature may help promote positive body image and could be used as an early, accessible intervention to reduce the risk of developing eating disorders. The findings from this study will be shared through conference presentations and journal publications. The data from this project will also be used in a future study assessing the impact of nature exposure on daily emotion regulation.