Effects of Plant Mediated Therapy Activity on College Students’ Academic Burnout and Stress

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of plant mediated therapy on college student’s academic exhaustion and stress. The program is composed of horticultural therapy activities and forest therapy activities that improve self-encouragement level and sense of self-esteem and relieve stress. The horticultural therapy program, which consisted of eight sessions of 10 sessions, was held in the lecture hall of G university, and the forest therapy program, consisting of the remaining sessions, were held in M mountain near G university. One lead researcher and one assistant researcher conducted program activities for an hour and a half each week from September 1 to November 10. The experimental group and the control group measured their self-encouragement, academic exhaustion, academic stress, and cumulative stress before and after the program. The pre- and post- test results of the plant mediated therapy program showed significant difference in the academic exhaustion (p=.023), academic stress (p=.025), and cumulative stress (p=.027). However, there was no significant difference in self-encouragement test results. Based on these results, it was found that plant mediated activities positively affect college students’ academic exhaustion and stress.