Investigating affinity for nature as a determinant of nature use and health benefits

Abstract

Nature affinity is an undervalued predictor of nature engagement that has implications for physical, emotional, and mental health at individual and population levels. Investigating the role of nature affinity in prompting nature-seeking behaviors, as well as understanding how social-environmental factors cultivate or discourage its development, can complement quantitative dosing approaches to healthful nature engagement. Five papers explored the latent and manifest dimensions of affinity which underlie effect measurement. Using qualitative mixed methods, the first paper probed how individuals from varied built environment contexts relate to nature images in ways shaped by cultural set and nature familiarity. Everyday nature exposure significantly differentiated how groups conceptualize and respond to nature imagery, possibly indicating unmet biophilic need among nature-deprived groups. The second paper explored through focus group discussions and inductive thematic analysis the antecedent factors found in built and natural environments which permit individuals to learn and model nature engagement through early life into adulthood. Paper three aimed to develop an integrated theoretical model which explains nature engagement through the prism of existing social behavioral theories not yet applied to this exposure discipline. The fourth paper investigated how withdrawal of nature contact under COVID-19 led individuals to feel nature deprived, and how perceived deprivation versus continued patterns of nature engagement related to pandemic-era flourishing. Those expressing high nature affinity retained levels of wellbeing of equivalent impact to reduced flourishing due to wage loss under COVID. Paper five launched a field study designed to test in situ effect magnitude of outdoor exercise as a function of duration in nature. Nature affinity emerged as a predictor of routine time in nature influencing mood changes and overall exposure patterns for salutogenic nature use. Taken together, these papers provide qualitative and quantitative evidence in support of nature affinity as a measurable determinant of nature use, along with attendant benefits of health improvement.