산림치유 이용자의 자연연관성, 감정, 각성상태가 스트레스 회복에 미치는 영향

Influence of Forest Healing User’s Nature Relatedness, Emotion, Arousal State on Stress Recovery: focused on Women in their 50’s

A large body of works in forest healing has shown that forest may have positive effects on human health, emotion and mind. However, the effects of forest experience are not universal; some people were effectively relieved from stress, whereas others were not, although they were commonly exposed to the same natural environment. We hypothesized that differential effects of forest experience among individuals are related to individual differences in their arousal status, Nature Relatedness (NR), and negative emotion. To test this, we examined the relationships between physiological change related to stress and these variables. A group of 27 women (ages ranging from 51 to 59) people participated in the experiment. Their Heart Rate Variability (HRV) was measured to validate stress response, and Profile of Mood States and Nature Relatedness Scale were used. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that as the level of NR increased, the values of LF/HF in HRV decreased, indicating that the activation of parasympathetic nervous increased. By contrast, the level of arousal status and depression mood was negatively correlated with the levels of LF/HF. The results of this study suggest that if forest visitors would actively interact with nature in positive emotion, restorative effects could increase.