Effects of Plant Cultivating Activity for Reducing Parental Stress

This study was conducted to find out the influence of plant cultivating activities program to reduce the stress of parents. Saliva cortisol salivettes system method was taken effect for this study with total 27 of parents who are 39.15±3.5 years old on average and have children attending primary school. The cortisol level was measured once a week, total 10 times, before/after 90 minutes plant cultivating activities program. As the result of this program, the total cortisol decreased after the plant cultivating activities program and there was a statistically significant difference with the total cortisol (t=14.521, p <.01). In addition to this, the final session has the most effect on decreasing the stress compare to other previous sessions. As the result of asking 8 questions on a 7 point Likert scale about preference for plants and plant-related experiences before/after the plant cultivating activities program, the score difference of “The experiences of growing plants still have an influence on my life” was highest between before and after the program at a statistically significant difference. These results imply that the plant cultivation program can boost stress-reducing effects, allow parents being familiar with plants, and provide positive influence on relieving parenting stress. In addition to this, the standardization of physiological changes can be established more easily with the saliva cortisol method as it is less stressful to the subject and a more convenient test, that can be taken anytime and anywhere, compared to the blood cortisol method.