Health Benefits

• Author(s): The Trust for Public Land

• Organization: The Trust for Public land

• Date Published: August 14, 2014

This digital booklet discusses the latest research demonstrating the connection between parks and health in a concise manner that is easy to read and share with others. The authors encourage the readers ti share 8 Ways Parks Improve Your Health with their friends and neighbors, and anyone else who might enjoy learning about all the ways that parks boost the health of the whole community. An excellent resource to share with all.

8 ways that parks improve your health

• Author(s): Jules Pretty, Morris Griffin, Jo Peacock, et al.

• Organization: Countryside Recreation Network

• Date Published: February 1, 2005

The presence of nearby nature, and active participation with nature. The evidence suggests that nature can make positive contributions to our health, help us recover from preexisting stresses or problems, have an immunising effect by protecting us from future stresses, and help us to concentrate and think more clearly.

http://www.docs.hss.ed.ac.uk/education/outdoored/health_wellbeing.pdf

• Author(s): The Research File

• Organization: Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institutehttp://www.cflri.ca/ and ParticipACTION http://www.participaction.com/

• Date Published: December 31, 2010

This research file highlights the benefits of physical activity in chronic disease prevention and management which has been well established in the literature. Physical activity has been shown to reduce the risk of; coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity and certain types of cancers.

http://www.cflri.ca/node/305

• Organization: Children & Nature Network (http://www.childrenandnature.org/)
• Date Published: January 6, 2012

This document provides an evidence base for the importance of children’s and youth’s connections with nature, now and for the future. Evidence provided in this annotated bibliography of research relates to: 1) children’s experiences of the outdoors and nature, particularly the often limited nature of these experiences and 2) the benefits derived from children’s experiences of the outdoors and nature both for their healthy development and the protection of the Earth.

This document includes studies from five volumes of research summaries that have been compiled by the Children & Nature Network. These five volumes are available at http://www.childrenandnature.org/. This document includes an executive summary of each research report, information on lead/corresponding author affiliation, a full citation, information on each document’s availability, and information on which Children & Nature Network research volume the original report appears.

http://www.childrenandnature.org/downloads/CECCNNWorldwideResearch.pdf

• Author(s): Sarah-Anne Munoz

• Organization: Sustainable Development Research Centre

• Date Published: January 1, 2009

This 2009 literature review investigates the link between outdoor use and the associated effects on health and well-being in children. The authors found a positive relationship between use of the outdoors and health, in particular, that access to the outdoors is associated with increased physical activity. In addition, the authors explore the growing body of literature linking being outdoors with higher levels of well-being and physiological benefits, such as stress reduction. This review also investigates factors that may constrain or enable the use of outdoor space, focusing on the role that parents, teachers, and society in general, play in getting children into the outdoors.

http://benefitshub.ca/entry/children-in-the-outdoors-a-literature-review/

Connecting Canadians with Nature: An Investment in the Well-Being of Our Citizens

• Author(s): Canadian Parks Council

• Organization: Canadian Parks Council

• Date Published: January 1, 2014

This easy to read document outlines the current situation with respect to Canadians spending time outdoors in parks. This is followed by a presentation of the benefits of connecting with nature and the role of Canadian Parks.

• Author(s): John M. Zelenski, Raelyne L, Dopko, Colin A. Capaldi

• Organization: Journal of Environmental Psychology, V 42, pages 24-31

• Date Published: June 1, 2015

Theory and correlational research suggest that connecting with nature may facilitate prosocial and environmentally sustainable behaviors. In three studies the authors test causal direction with experimental manipulations of nature exposure and laboratory analogs of cooperative and sustainable behavior. Participants who watched a nature video harvested more cooperatively and sustainably in a fishing-themed commons dilemma, compared to participants who watched an architectural video (Study 1 and 2) or geometric shapes with an audio podcast about writing (Study 2). The effects were not due to mood, and this was corroborated in Study 3 where pleasantness and nature content were manipulated independently in a 2 x 2 design. Participants exposed to nature videos responded more cooperatively on a measure of social value orientation and indicated greater willingness to engage in environmentally sustainable behaviors. Collectively, results suggest that exposure to nature may increase cooperation, and, when considering environmental problems as social dilemmas, sustainable intentions and behavior.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494415000195

• Author(s): H. Hausenblas

• Organization: Florida Times Union Newspaper –

• Date Published: January 5, 2015

Newspaper article that identifies that exercise outdoors has greater benefits than indoor exercise.
Exerpt:
A review published in Extreme Physiology and Medicine found that, compared with indoor exercise, green exercise produces greater increases in our energy, happiness, self-esteem and concentration; and larger decreases in our levels of tension, confusion, anger, depression, blood pressure, stress and perceived exertion.

http://jacksonville.com/sports/outdoorsoutside/2015-01-05/story/fit-life-green-exercise-beats-working-out-indoors