Why Does Nature Matter for Mental Health?
In an increasingly urbanized world, many of us find ourselves disconnected from nature.
Research shows that regular contact with natural environments can significantly enhance
our well-being, reducing stress and helping us cope with life’s challenges. The RESONATE
project brings together experts from various fields—researchers, policymakers, practitioners,
and innovators—to better understand how nature-based therapy (NbT) can benefit
individuals and communities.
As the coordinator of Case Study 1 (CS1), I’m excited to share our work investigating
whether contact with nature in one’s local neighbourhood can help adults build psychological
resilience. Specifically, we are exploring how neighbourhood green space might help people
better manage stressors such as financial instability. In contrast to Case Studies 3-9, which
are studies of quasi experiments and well-controlled interventions, our study in CS1 focuses
on real-world data collected over several years from thousands of households across the
UK. By carefully looking at possible links between nature exposure, resilience, and well-
being, we hope to provide evidence to communities, urban planners, and policymakers on
best to incorporate nature into the daily lives of citizens and reduce the burden of mental ill
health associated with low resilience to stress.
What We’re Studying: Connecting Nature to Psychological Resilience
CS1 uses data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), which
tracks individuals over time, collecting information about their living conditions, mental
health, and life experiences. Our analysis spans four waves of data (2012–2017), covering
around 22,800 households.
We are linking home address coordinates with geographical land-use data to measure
individuals’ exposure to nature. This allows us to quantify factors like the percentage of
greenspace in a neighbourhood, the proximity of public parks, and the distance to coastal
areas. Our goal is to determine whether people living in greener environments build stronger
psychological resilience—meaning they are better equipped to handle stress over time.
We measure this resilience using a structured timeline:
- Baseline (Wave 4): Establishing participants’ initial exposure to nature and their
mental well-being. - Wave 5: Measuring self-efficacy (a key resilience factor) and tracking changes in
mental health. - Wave 6: Identifying major stressors—specifically financial stress.
- Wave 7: Assessing final mental health outcomes to determine whether earlier nature
exposure helped mitigate stress impacts.
Our central hypothesis is that people who have greater neighbourhood nature contact in
earlier waves will demonstrate stronger resilience when facing financial stress in later waves.
Progress So Far: Data Access and Key Findings
Conducting a large-scale study like this involves multiple steps, including securing ethical
approvals, refining research questions, and coordinating with international experts. We
received ethics approval in March 2024 and successfully gained access to the secure
UKHLS data in July 2024. After an initial review of stressors, we decided to focus on
income-related stress rather than other life events (such as bereavement or job loss), as
financial instability had the most usable sample size.
One of the most critical decisions in our study involved selecting the right measure of
financial stress. Initially, we considered using responses to the question “how well are you
coping on your current income”. However, expert advice revealed that such responses are
potentially confounded with the concept of resilience through the use of the term ‘coping’. As
a result, we turned to income volatility, specifically the percentage change in income
between waves, as a more objective measure of financial stress. Our approach examines
three income components:
- Net household income (disposable income after taxes and transfers)
- Household benefit income (government financial assistance)
- Individual labour income (earnings from employment)
By breaking income into these components, we aim to understand how different sources of
financial fluctuation impact psychological well-being—and whether resilience built through
contact with nature can buffer these effects.
Challenges and Lessons Learned
As with any large-scale research project, we’ve encountered challenges along the way. One
of the biggest limitations of working with secondary data is the lack of control over which
variables are available. For example, our initial dataset included over 37,000 participants in
around 25,000 households, but due to our requirement that individuals must remain in the
same location for four waves, our final sample size was reduced to 22,800 households.
Another key challenge involved refining our theoretical model. We worked closely with the
coordinators of Case Studies 2 and 3 to align our approach, leading to in-depth discussions
about how best to analyse resilience. Our preferred model—a moderated mediation
framework—did not initially fit into standard templates used in statistical analysis. However,
through collaboration and expert input, we realized that the key lay not in modifying our
approach but in correctly interpreting our statistical outputs. These discussions have
enriched our methodology and strengthened our findings.
Why This Research Matters: Implications for Policy and Urban Planning
Our work in CS1 has significant real-world implications. If we demonstrate that natural
environments help build psychological resilience, this will provide a strong case for
policymakers and urban planners to prioritize green infrastructure. This might include
designing more parks, preserving natural spaces in cities, and ensuring that disadvantaged
communities have access to these environments.
Moreover, our findings could contribute to public health initiatives that promote nature-based
therapies as a cost-effective way to enhance mental well-being. By integrating NbT into
healthcare systems, we can provide accessible, low-cost solutions for improving resilience in
urban populations.
Looking Ahead: Next Steps and the Future of RESONATE
We are currently finalizing the linkage of land-use data with participant locations and expect
to have preliminary results in the coming months. Our next steps include:
- Completing the analysis of income volatility and its interaction with neighbourhood
nature exposure. - Publishing findings that will inform discussions on urban planning and public health.
- Engaging with stakeholders—researchers, policymakers, and community leaders—to
translate our research into action.
The RESONATE project is about more than just academic research—it’s about making a
tangible difference in how society views and utilizes nature for well-being. We hope our work
in CS1 will inspire others to rethink the role of green spaces in everyday life and encourage
initiatives that make nature-based therapies more widely available.
