| Description |
Military families face unique stressors, such as deployment, PTSD, and reintegration into civilian life. Because of this, activities that reduce stress and provide restoration are important to overall health. Various types of outdoor recreation have been shown to provide these benefits for individual members of the military. However, there is a lack of research on the benefits of less structured nature activities, such as walks in nature, which involve entire families. Therefore, this study aims to provide a preliminary exploration of the benefits of a walk in nature as part of a half-day nature outing involving parents and their children. Military families from the Mountain West participated in a morning nature outing to a local nature center after attending a one-hour arts-informed presentation on the benefits of play in nature. While they walked through the nature center, families were asked to pay attention to things that caught their attention and to take photos to later share with researchers. After the walk, parents filled out a questionnaire asking about their experiences of restoration, flow, and awe. They were then interviewed about their experiences on the nature walk and the photos that they took. Parents later emailed the photos to the researchers. Interviews were transcribed and content analysis was performed, and descriptive statistics were used to explore the questionnaires. The surveys showed that participants had feelings of restoration, flow, and awe on the outing. Interviews revealed that prominent themes in experiences at the nature center were the natural setting, restoration, spending time as a family, and play. |
