Exploring the relationships among experiences in nature, well-being, and stewardship during the COVID-19 pandemic
Creators: name: Baranski, Erica
name: Heilmayr, Dietlinde
name: Miller, Travis
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: The COVID-19 pandemic brought sudden and dramatic changes to our daily lives. From shifting to remote work, to following shelter-in-place orders, to increased concerns about the health and well-being of one’s self and family, individuals were required to make changes to their daily habits and to find new methods of coping with stress and maintain well-being. In the present study, we aim to capture how changes to daily life due to the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., changes caused by stay-at-home orders) affected individuals’ engagement with the outdoors. Specifically, we describe how people spent time outdoors in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Building from this foundation, we then assess how time spent outdoors relates to individuals’ relationship to natural environments and to a healthy adaptation to stay-at-home orders. In this preregistered study, we had participants (N = 192) from the United States complete an online survey. The survey consisted of seven open-response questions about outdoor experiences during the pandemic (e.g., “What kinds of outdoor activities, if any, have you been engaging in since you started taking precautions due to COVID-19?” and “Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your appreciation for nature? Please explain.”) Participants also completed several quantitative individual difference scales, including those assessing connection to nature, nature identity, thriving, physical health, well-being, and concern about COVID-19 (a complete list of measures with citations can be found in our preregistration). At the end of the study, participants had the option to claim their $5.00 participant compensation as a gift card to an online store, or to donate their payment to the Center for Disease Control’s COVID-19 fund, or to The Trust for Public Land. We will use these data, which were collected in early April 2020, to address three specific research questions. Research question 1: How do individuals experience the outdoors during a pandemic? Our first research question is descriptive. Specifically, how did people experience the outdoors during the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic? To address this question, we report whether the quantity of time outdoors changed, the types of activities people were doing outdoors, the location of outdoor activities, and the degree of nature immersion these locations provide. We also address the reason for any changes in outdoor time, as well as anticipated changes to time spent outdoors after shelter-in-place restrictions are lifted. Research question 2: How do experiences outdoors during a pandemic relate to individual differences (e.g., well-being, self-reported health, and nature identity)? The qualitative responses were coded for a variety of psychologically relevant categories, including change in appreciation for the outdoors due to the pandemic, motivation for spending more or less time outdoors during the pandemic, and complexity of expressed meaning in describing an outdoor experience during the pandemic. (The full list of coded variables can be found in our preregistration.) These variables will be related to the individual difference measures to assess how different types of outdoor experiences are associated with connection to nature, well-being, concern about COVID-19, thriving, and self-reported health. Research question 3: Do environmental experiences and COVID-19 concern predict individuals’ choice to donate their participation payment to The Trust for Public Land, to the Center for Disease Control’s COVID-19 fund, or to keep the payment for themselves in the form of a gift card? This behavioral outcome measure adds to the preceding research questions by assessing whether nature experiences relate to actual prosocial environmental and/or societal behavior. The data used to address the aforementioned research questions have been collected and preregistered but have not yet been analyzed, putting us on track to submit the final manuscript by March 2021. Upon publication, this article will increase our understanding of how the pandemic affected human-nature relationships, and will also contribute to knowledge around how nature can be used to help individuals and communities during times of crisis.