Nature helps boost mental well-being for city kids, UW study finds

Being surrounded by nature for even just a few minutes can boost the health and well-being of young people living in cities.

That's according to a new University of Waterloo study. About 70 children aged 9 to 17 in Kitchener were involved.

Lead researcher Leia Minaker and her team took the children for a walk around the city, stopping at seven spots with very different urban and natural sights. At the end of the walk, the participants were asked to report back on how each stop made them feel.

Minaker said the kids consistently gave higher scores for stops in more natural areas and lower scores for areas that were busy with city life.

"The main reason that we wanted to ask kids how they were feeling in this space is because kids are typically ignored in any kind of planning or city building decision that will affect them," Minaker said.

"We really wanted to look at how children and adolescents are experiencing these different places because all of the decisions that adults are making are affecting them and they don't usually get a say."

Minaker said the about 70 children were led on a walk through the Iron Horse Trail, Victoria Park, Park Street and more urban areas in downtown Kitchener, including a transit stop on Charles Street.

"We weren't just interested in forestry; we were interested in all kinds of urban design elements," she said.

"What we found was that certain stops produced much higher ratings of anxious feelings ... and other [nature] spots had much higher levels of calmness, reduced anxiety, much higher positive affect or happiness or joyful feelings," Minaker said, adding the kids only spent about two to three minutes at each spot.

The benefits of meditating while being surrounded by nature is not a new concept for forest bathers in Kitchener and around the world.

The practice of forest bathing (also called forest therapy or shinrin-yoku) originated in Japan in the 1980s. Today, the City of Kitchener hosts seasonal forest bathing programs in the Huron Natural Area. It is defined as the act of practising mindfulness while surrounded by a natural forest area.

One of the regular participants of the free classes in Kitchener is Vashti Latchman, who enjoys taking part with her kids: Roderick, Raya and James Hornby.

"I find taking them outside always can bring down the level of everything [including] fighting. It's a fun activity," she said.

"I had read studies about the increase mental illness pandemic that's happening with kids and one of the methods they suggested was getting kids outside and into nature. So whenever there are opportunities to get them outside, that's what I do."