{"id":30570,"date":"2024-03-25T07:04:43","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T11:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=30570"},"modified":"2024-03-25T10:07:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T14:07:45","slug":"furman-engaged-green-is-good-for-your-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-engaged-green-is-good-for-your-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman Engaged: Green is good \u2013 for your mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Davis Dear \u201924, a biology<\/a> major on the environmental and conservation<\/a> biology track, has known for a while that green spaces positively effect her own quality of life and emotional state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shapes a big part of my identity,\u201d said the senior from Madison, Mississippi. \u201cThere\u2019s so much you can see and learn from a simple leaf or a shell that\u2019s millions of years old. And running on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, being able to see all the passing trees and people, brings me a lot of peace, as opposed to running on a treadmill in a gym.\u201d<\/p>\n

To discover whether the same was true for others, she turned to science. Working with Courtney Quinn, an adjunct professor in Earth, environmental and sustainability sciences, and John Quinn, an associate professor of biology and director of environmental studies, Dear worked last summer to learn if getting out in nature can improve emotional states, and the effects different types of environments might produce.<\/p>\n

Dear will present her study, \u201cThe impact of different types of green space on emotional state,\u201d during Furman Engaged<\/a>, Furman\u2019s annual campus-wide celebration of engaged learning experiences, on April 12, during a session on research and internship experiences in biology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with Davis has been a great experience. Her passion for understanding the interplay between green space and the emotional well-being of college students is socially significant,\u201d said Courtney Quinn<\/a>. \u201cHer work is shedding light on the importance of our relationship with nature. It will be inspiring to see the work she does after her time at Furman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis worked closely with two other seniors, Nathan Ofotokun and Ryan Adams, on the project, which reflected the multiple dimensions of well-being and green space, John Quinn<\/a> noted.<\/p>\n

Her research, you might say, was a walk in the park \u2013 actually, 12 walks, one-on-one with a different undergraduate volunteer subject. They would go to one of three destinations: a \u201cnatural green space,\u201d Paris Mountain State Park, the \u201cconstructed green space\u201d of the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail and an \u201curban gray space\u201d area near Haywood Mall \u2013 \u201cvery Brutalist, I would say,\u201d said Dear.<\/p>\n

As they walked, Dear would ask each subject \u201cquestions about their relationship with nature, especially growing up as a child, and then how often they go outside now, as well as how often their families did. Did they grow up in an environment where the stewardship of nature is important? And what words do they associate with nature \u2013 do they associate it with scary bugs and snakes, or is it a place of tranquility and peace?\u201d<\/p>\n

She is still in the process of analyzing the recordings of her interviews and data from heart-rate devices each subject wore.\u00a0So far, she is finding trends that mirror her own experience as a nature aficionado, including the correlation between spending time in nature as a child and higher quality of life and less perceived stress later on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a more positive change with those who were walking in the natural green space,\u201d said Dear.<\/p>\n

Her relatively small sample size made sense given the purpose of the research, said the senior.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus of the study was to learn from the individuals themselves, rather than making it applicable to everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cWe make sure that each individual story was heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dear, who is applying to graduate programs to study human dimensions of natural resource management, hopes the work she will present at Furman Engaged will plant a seed in the minds of her peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it inspires students to get outside and raise awareness that green space can have a positive effect on students\u2019 lives,\u201d said Dear. \u201cI think everyone can have that, not just students. I love Furman having the lake right there and then the Swamp Rabbit Trail you can just walk right onto, and an area like Falls Park in downtown Greenville, where people go to get that green space and have a place for rest and rejuvenation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Furman Engaged Is April 12, 2024<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

The Furman Advantage guarantees students the opportunity to participate in high-impact engaged learning experiences. Furman Engaged is a day dedicated to highlighting these diverse and immersive learning experiences. Learn more >><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Davis Dear \u201924 has been measuring the effect of green spaces on quality of life and emotional state, one nature walk at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":30673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,37,30,55],"tags":[1945],"class_list":["post-30570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-earth-environmental-and-sustainability-sciences","category-top-stories","category-undergraduate-research","tag-furman-engaged"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}