Because birdwatching is an easily accessible activity, the results are encouraging for college students -- who are among those most likely to suffer from mental health problems.
"There has been a lot of research about well-being coming out through the pandemic that suggests adolescents and college-aged kids are struggling the most," said Nils Peterson, corresponding author of the study and a professor of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University."Especially when you think about students and grad students, it seems like those are groups that are struggling in terms of access to nature and getting those benefits.
Researchers split the participants into three groups: a control group, a group assigned five nature walks and a group assigned five 30-minute birdwatching sessions. While all three groups had improved WHO-5 scores, the birdwatching group started lower and ended higher than the other two.
The study supports the idea that birdwatching helps improve mental health and opens up many avenues for future research. For example, future study could examine why birdwatching helps people feel better or the moderating effects of race, gender and other factors.M. Nils Peterson, Lincoln R. Larson, Aaron Hipp, Justin M. Beall, Catherine Lerose, Hannah Desrochers, Summer Lauder, Sophia Torres, Nathan A. Tarr, Kayla Stukes, Kathryn Stevenson, Katherine L. Martin.