There’s nothing like the real thing: nature connection and emotion in outdoor and online songs for nature workshops

Abstract

Given the value of natural environments for climate change solutions and human health, public support for preserving and restoring natural ecosystems is important. One avenue to such support is to increase connection to nature, so it is important to understand factors that influence this characteristic. In the context of Songs for Nature workshops, we examined whether online and outdoor nature contact increase nature connection in a similar manner. Results indicated that online workshops also improved mood, but they did not significantly increase nature connection ratings. Outdoor workshops improved both nature connection and mood. This suggests that both online and outdoor environmental programs can influence emotions but outdoor experiences in natural settings may be necessary to strengthen nature connection.

Keywords:

• Nature connection
• nature contact
• emotion
• hope
• outdoor education
• music education
• Songs 4 Nature

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We define nature widely as the organisms, objects, and events associated with the non-human world, including vegetation and wildlife in urban, rural, and wilderness settings. Research on the health benefits of nature contact varies across studies, but generally includes human managed nature such as urban parks and gardens as well as wilderness ecosystems.

2 We did not measure whether or not participants used the suggestion to engage in nature exploration during the workshops.

3 Zoom is a commercial videoconferencing platform that has been widely used during the covid-19 pandemic.

4 The online workshop participants who completed parts of both questionnaires were less likely to complete the full questionnaires than were outdoor workshop participants, so the data for each format included more equal samples than these numbers indicate. The number of participants who were included in each analysis is shown in Table 1.

5 Some participants did not complete both pre- and post-test measures for all factors, so the degrees of freedom vary across subscales. See Table 1 for the Ns contributing to each measure.

6 Nature Connection, t(23) = 1.46, p = .157; NA, t(25) = -1.31, p = .203; Hope-Pathway, t(25) = 1.41, p = .171; Hope-Agency, t(25) = 0.82, p = .420

7 Nature connection ratings were relatively high at the start of the online workshops, perhaps because pandemic restrictions gave people more time to appreciate the things around them, particularly nature.

8 It should be noted that during the times both online workshops were conducted the provincial COVID-19 case numbers were in decline, although the decreases were larger during the summer than the winter workshops. The decrease in case numbers could have influenced online participants’ moods over the course of the workshops, but these changes were less than those for outdoor camps, so this factor did not likely overshadow the mood-lifting impacts of nature contact to a great degree.

Additional information

Funding

This program was received from Environment & Climate Change Canada, Parks Canada, and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.