Nurturing connection with nature: the role of spending time in different types of nature

Figures & data

Table 1. One-way ANOVA comparing CN scores (Time 1 and Time 2) across time spent in nature categories (never/rarely, sometimes, often, very often) for the seven time spent in nature variables. Planned contrasts (never/rarely vs sometimes + often + very often) are shown (n = 1036; df = degrees of freedom).

		ANOVA			Contrast
	CN	F (df = 3)	p	η^2	F (df = 1)	p	η^2
TIN past year	Time 1	53.847	<0.001	0.135	102.865	<0.001	0.091
	Time 2	73.323	<0.001	0.176	139.861	<0.001	0.119
TIN wilderness	Time 1	32.310	<0.001	0.086	30.689	<0.001	0.029
	Time 2	36.112	<0.001	0.095	33.214	<0.001	0.031
TIN beach	Time 1	11.893	<0.001	0.033	33.646	<0.001	0.032
	Time 2	16.181	<0.001	0.045	43.131	<0.001	0.040
TIN water	Time 1	23.651	<0.001	0.064	64.224	<0.001	0.059
	Time 2	34.768	<0.001	0.092	90.952	<0.001	0.081
TIN zoo	Time 1	8.878	<0.001	0.025	4.761	0.029	0.005
	Time 2	12.134	<0.001	0.034	2.565	0.110	0.002
TIN urban	Time 1	13.555	<0.001	0.038	21.832	<0.001	0.021
	Time 2	26.867	<0.001	0.072	47.624	<0.001	0.044
TIN garden	Time 1	38.780	<0.001	0.101	26.853	<0.001	0.025
	Time 2	41.861	<0.001	0.108	27.373	<0.001	0.026

Figure 1. Percentage of respondents spending time in nature over the past year (never/rarely, sometimes, often, very often): generally (TIN past year); in protected or wilderness areas (TIN wilderness); at beach or coastal areas (TIN beach); at a lake, river or other waterway (TIN waterway); at a zoo, wildlife park, or botanical garden (TIN zoo); at an urban park (TIN urban park); and at a garden at home, or the garden of a friend, neighbour or family member (TIN garden) (n = 1036).

Figure 2. Mean CN scores (Time 1 and Time 2) for each category (never/rarely, sometimes, often, very often) of time spent in nature over the past year: generally (TIN past year [top]); in protected or wilderness areas (TIN wilderness), at beach or coastal areas (TIN beach); at a lake, river or other waterway (TIN waterway) [centre]; at a zoo, wildlife park, or botanical garden (TIN zoo), at an urban park (TIN urban park), and at a garden at home, or the garden of a friend, neighbour or family member (TIN garden) [bottom]. Error bars show standard error of the mean. Significant increases from CN at Time 1 to CN at Time 2 (p < 0.05) are indicated by asterisks (n = 1036).

Table 2. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses predicting connection with nature at Time 2 (CN at Time 2), from time spent in nature in the past year (TIN past year: Step 3, left), and time spent in different types of nature (wilderness, beach, waterway, zoo, urban park, garden: Step 3, right) [SE=standard error, 95% confidence intervals in brackets] (n = 1036).

	Step 1				Step 2				Step 3
									Regression 1: TIN (past year)				Regression 2: TIN (different types)
	B	SE B	β	p	B	SE B	β	p	B	SE B	β	p	B	SE B	β	p
Constant	4.367 (4.069,4.665)	0.152		<0.001	0.968 (0.725,1.210)	0.124		<0.001	0.983 (0.746,1.220)	0.121		<0.001	4.367 (4.069,4.665)	0.152		<0.001
Age	0.006 (0.002,0.010)	0.002	0.100	0.002	0.002 (0.000,0.005)	0.001	0.034	0.077	0.002 (0.000,0.005)	0.001	0.034	0.072	0.006 (0.002,0.010)	0.002	0.100	0.002
Gender	0.277 (0.163,0.391)	0.058	0.146	<0.001	0.108 (0.038,0.178)	0.036	0.057	0.003	0.088 (0.019,0.156)	0.035	0.046	0.012	0.277 (0.163,0.391)	0.058	0.146	<0.001
Urbanicity	0.089 (0.019,0.158)	0.035	0.079	0.012	0.009 (−0.033,0.052)	0.022	0.008	0.667	−0.010 (−0.052,0.032)	0.021	−0.009	0.633	0.089 (0.019,0.158)	0.035	0.079	0.012
CN at Time 1					0.769 (0.733,0.806)	0.018	0.788	<0.001	0.722 (0.684,0.760)	0.019	0.740	<0.001	0.968 (0.725,1.210)	0.124		<0.001
TIN past year									0.121 (0.088,0.155)	0.017	0.141	<0.001
TIN wilderness													0.002 (0.000,0.005)	0.001	0.034	0.077
TIN beach													0.108 (0.038,0.178)	0.036	0.057	0.003
TIN waterway													0.009 (−0.033,0.052)	0.022	0.008	0.667
TIN zoo													0.769 (0.733,0.806)	0.018	0.788	<0.001
TIN urban													0.658 (0.402,0.913)	0.130		<0.001
TIN garden													0.002 (0.000,0.005)	0.001	0.034	0.099
	F (3,1032) = 14.100, Adj. R^2 = 0.037, p < 0.001, f^2 = 0.041				ΔF (1,1031) = 1737.367, ΔR^2 = 0.603, p < 0.001, f^2 = 1.519				ΔF (1,1030) = 50.625, ΔR^2 = 0.017, p < 0.001, f^2 = 0.017				ΔF (1,1025) = 11.572, ΔR^2 = 0.023, p < 0.001, f^2 = 0.024

Figure 3. Simple mediation analysis predicting connection with nature at Time 2 (Y) from connection with nature at Time 1 (×) with time spent in nature generally (M) as mediator. Age (C₁), gender (C₂), and urbanicity (C₃) are entered as covariates (***p < 0.001).

Figure 4. Parallel multiple mediation analysis predicting connection with nature at Time 2 (Y) from connection with nature at Time 1 (×) with time spent in six types of nature (protected or wilderness area (M₁); beach or coastal area (M₂); lake, river or other waterway (M₃); zoo, wildlife park, or botanical garden (M₄); urban park (M₅); own garden at home (M₆) as mediators). Age (C₁), gender (C₂), and urbanicity (C₃) are entered as covariates (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ^nsp > 0.05).

Data availability statement

The data and syntax for this research are available at Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/3ca7f/?view_only=82164315080249d49d0eec6e5a34e21f)