A Little Nature Can Boost Teens’ Pandemic Well-Being Outdoor play and nature-based activities can help buffer some of the negative mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for adolescents, according to a new study.
By Laura Oleniacz – NC State Researchers say the findings point to outdoor play and nature-based activities as a tool to help teenagers cope with major stressors like the pandemic, as well as future natural disasters and other global stressors. They also underscore the mental health implications of restricting outdoor recreation opportunities for adolescents, and the need to increase access to the outdoors. “Families should be encouraged that building patterns in outdoor recreation can give kids tools to weather the storms to come,” says Kathryn Stevenson, assistant professor of parks, recreation, and tourism management at North Carolina State University and coauthor of the paper in the