Correction published on 18 February 2020,
see
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(4), 1316.
Psychological Benefits of Walking through Forest Areas
by
Chorong Song 1
, Harumi Ikei 1,2, Bum-Jin Park 3, Juyoung Lee 4, Takahide Kagawa 2 and Yoshifumi Miyazaki 1,*
Chorong Song 1, Harumi Ikei 1,2, Bum-Jin Park 3, Juyoung Lee 4, Takahide Kagawa 2 and Yoshifumi Miyazaki 1,*
1
Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences, Chiba University, 6-2-1 Kashiwa-no-ha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-0882, Japan
2
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan
3
Department of Environment and Forest Resources, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34134, Korea
4
Department of Landscape Architecture, Hankyong National University, 327 Jungang-ro, Anseong-si, Gyeonggi-do 17579, Korea
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(12), 2804; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122804
Received: 31 October 2018 / Revised: 25 November 2018 / Accepted: 6 December 2018 / Published: 10 December 2018
This study aimed to clarify the psychological benefits of brief walks through forest areas. In addition, we aimed to examine the associations between psychological responses and trait anxiety levels. Five-hundred-and-eighty-five participants (mean age, 21.7 ± 1.6 years) were instructed to walk predetermined courses through forest (test) and city (control) areas for 15 min. The Profile of Mood State (POMS) questionnaire and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were used to assess participants’ psychological responses and trait anxiety levels, respectively. The results revealed that walking through forest areas decreased the negative moods of “depression-dejection”, “tension-anxiety”, “anger-hostility”, “fatigue”, and “confusion” and improved the participants’ positive mood of “vigor” compared with walking through city areas. Furthermore, a significant correlation was found between participants’ trait anxiety levels and their changes in the subscale of “depression-dejection” of POMS after walking through forest areas. A more effective reduction in the feeling of “depression-dejection” after walking through forest areas was observed for participants with high trait anxiety levels than for those with normal and low trait anxiety levels. This study showed the psychological benefits of walking through forest areas and identified a significant correlation between psychological responses to walking through forests and trait anxiety levels.
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Keywords:
forests; shinrin-yoku; forest therapy; psychological relaxation; profile of mood state; brief walks; individual difference; trait anxiety
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Song, C.; Ikei, H.; Park, B.-J.; Lee, J.; Kagawa, T.; Miyazaki, Y. Psychological Benefits of Walking through Forest Areas. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 2804.
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