SynthesisJournal of epidemiology and community health2018
Mental health benefits of interactions with nature in children and teenagers: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 136 papers, 12 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
136 citing papers in PubMed, 12 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic overview and second-order meta-analysis of nature-based interventions for stress, anxiety and depression.Nature human behaviour · 2026Pooled it
- Impact of outdoor and nature-based interventions on self-efficacy among adolescents and young adults: a three-level meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Assessing the Impact of Urban Environments on Mental Health and Perception Using Deep Learning: A Review and Text Mining Analysis.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2024Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Mechanisms Underpinning Psychological Change Following Nature Exposure in an Adolescent Population.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Exploring connections between pollinator health and human health.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Nature-Based Early Childhood Education and Children's Social, Emotional and Cognitive Development: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Studies Describing the Effectiveness, Acceptability, and Potential Harms of Place-Based Interventions to Address Loneliness and Mental Health Problems.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Getting Out of the Classroom and Into Nature: A Systematic Review of Nature-Specific Outdoor Learning on School Children's Learning and Development.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- Life Course Nature Exposure and Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Future Directions.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Indicators of Healthy Architecture-a Systematic Literature Review.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2020Pooled it
- The Association between Green Space and Adolescents' Mental Well-Being: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- Immersive Nature-Experiences as Health Promotion Interventions for Healthy, Vulnerable, and Sick Populations? A Systematic Review and Appraisal of Controlled Studies.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- Evaluation of the Web-Based OutsidePlay-ECE Intervention to Influence Early Childhood Educators' Attitudes and Supportive Behaviors Toward Outdoor Play: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Trial
- Brief repeated virtual nature contact for three weeks boosts university students' nature connectedness and psychological and physiological health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A pilot study.Frontiers in public health · 2022Trial
- Longitudinal associations between play experiences and trajectories of preschoolers' mental health from April-July, 2020.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Children's independent mobility in Japan: travelling to, returning from, and playing within local parks.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- King Lear in the upper palaeolithic: searching for ethical principles in prehistory.Monash bioethics review · 2026Article
- How Mountain Park Spatial Environments Affect Physiological and Psychological Perceptions of Young Adults Based on Real Time Sensor Monitoring.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Employee-nature interactions: A scoping review on employees' green exercise behaviors.Work (Reading, Mass.) · 2026Article
76 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIt is commonly believed that nature has positive impacts on children's health, including physical, mental and social dimensions. This review focuses on how accessibility to, exposure to and engagement with nature affects the mental health of children and teenagers.
methodsTen academic databases were used to systematically search and identify primary research papers in English or French from 1990 to 1 March 2017. Papers were included for review based on their incorporation of nature, children and teenagers (0-18 years), quantitative results and focus on mental health.
resultsOf the 35 papers included in the review, the majority focused on emotional well-being and attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity disorder. Other outcome measures included overall mental health, self-esteem, stress, resilience, depression and health-related quality of life. About half of all reported findings revealed statistically significant positive relationships between nature and mental health outcomes and almost half reported no statistical significance.
conclusionsFindings support the contention that nature positively influences mental health; however, in most cases, additional research with more rigorous study designs and objective measures of both nature and mental health outcomes are needed to confirm statistically significant relationships. Existing evidence is limited by the cross-sectional nature of most papers.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.