Seniors' Participation in Gardening Improves Nature Relatedness, Psychological Well-being, and Pro-environmental Behavioral Intentions

Seniors' Participation in Gardening Improves Nature Relatedness, Psychological Well-being, and Pro-environmental Behavioral Intentions

Background and objective: Mounting evidence suggests that nature-based recreation such as gardening can generatevarious mental and behavioral benefits. However, the benefits of gardening for older populations are largely unknown. Thisstudy aimed to assess how a seniors' gardening program affects older people's nature relatedness, psychologicalwell-being, and intent to engage in pro-environmental behavior. Methods: We designed a one-group pretest-posttest study. Twelve seniors in their 60s and 70s participated in a gardeningprogram occurring in a university botanical garden for 5 months. We used a 5-point Likert scale to measure the participants'nature relatedness, psychological well-being, and pro-environmental behavioral intentions at the beginning as well as theend of the program. We compared the pretest and posttest scores on each measure using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test fornature relatedness and paired t-tests for psychological well-being and behavioral intentions. Results: Our results indicated statistically significant increases in all three outcome variables after participation in thegardening program. The median score for nature relatedness was 4.167 after program participation compared to 3.500before participation (p < .05). Also, participants' psychological well-being mean score increased from 3.505 to 4.009 (p <.01) while their intent to engage in pro-environmental behavior mean score increased from 4.115 to 4.427 (p < .05). Conclusion: A seniors' gardening program can be an effective way for older people to connect with nature and improve theirmental health. Also, gardening can foster the capacity of the elderly to help reduce human impacts on the environment.