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Behavioral Sciences
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Role of Recreation and Outdoor Activities in Promoting Mental Health...
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Role of Recreation and Outdoor Activities in Promoting Mental Health and Positive Behaviors in People of All Ages

A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Psychology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 March 2025 | Viewed by 871

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Alan Ewert

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
Interests: adventure education; motivations for risk recreation; human health; natural resource management; integrated natural resource management; resilience
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Alison Voight

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Former Director of Therapeutic Outdoor Programs, Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
Interests: outdoor leadership; adventure therapy; outdoor programming; therapeutic processes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recreational activities in outdoor environments are of great interest to people of all ages—from children to older adults—across all countries. There is a rather large body of global literature that has contributed to a better understanding of how recreation and outdoor play activities improve mental health, provide a sense of psychological well-being, and encourage positive health-promoting behaviors regardless of an individual’s lifespan status.  

This Special Issue, ‘Role of Recreation and Outdoor Activities in Promoting Mental Health and Positive Behaviors in People of all Ages,’ invites submissions of papers that broaden our understanding of how mental health, positive behaviors, and well-being can be enhanced through outdoor activities from a variety of perspectives: age (child through older adult); type of engagement (such as passive or active); intent (recreation, therapeutic, or community); outcomes (particularly related to mental, psychological, spiritual, or emotional health); theoretical or empirical research (quantitative, qualitative, or multiple methods).

Prof. Dr. Alan Ewert
Dr. Alison Voight
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mental health
  • lifespan
  • outdoor recreation
  • outdoor play
  • therapeutic
  • well-being
  • behavior

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 778 KiB  
Article
Nature-Based Therapeutic Intervention for Individuals with Post-Concussion Symptoms
by Sus Sola Corazon, Lisbeth Jul Olsen, Natasha Kæreby, Dorthe Varning Poulsen, Ulrik Sidenius, Stine Bekke-Hansen and Linda Marschner
Behav. Sci. 2024, 14(7), 594; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14070594 - 12 Jul 2024
Viewed by 471
Abstract
This study investigated the efficacy of a 10-session nature-based therapeutic intervention for people with post-concussion symptoms. The intervention involved physical and vestibular exercises, sensory training, relaxation, and psychoeducation, all of which were integrated with the natural environment in a forest therapy garden. This [...] Read more.
This study investigated the efficacy of a 10-session nature-based therapeutic intervention for people with post-concussion symptoms. The intervention involved physical and vestibular exercises, sensory training, relaxation, and psychoeducation, all of which were integrated with the natural environment in a forest therapy garden. This study was designed with a passive control period followed by the intervention (n = 30). The Mental Fatigue Scale (MFS) was the primary outcome measure. The secondary outcome measures were the Warwick–Edinburg Mental Wellbeing Scale and the short version of the Quality of Life after Brain Injury. A Likert scale was used to examine the mental strain of the sessions themselves. The MFS (primary outcome) exhibited a significant decrease with a medium-sized effect from before to after the intervention. The secondary outcomes exhibited significant increases from the beginning to the end of the intervention. All outcomes were sustained at follow-up ten weeks later. No significant difference was found from the control period. This study indicates that the described nature-based intervention is a feasible treatment for reducing prolonged post-concussion symptoms. However, it should be studied more in-depth to understand the impact of the natural environment and to validate the results on a larger representative population. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Role of Recreation and Outdoor Activities in Promoting Mental Health and Positive Behaviors in People of All Ages)
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