Does Social Distancing Affect the Stress Reduction and Attention Restoration of College Students in Different Natural Settings?
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Stress Reduction and Attention Restoration
1.2. The Restorative Natural Settings without Human Presence
1.3. Landscape Types and the Restoration
- Does the presence of individuals in natural scenes affect the inherent restorative benefits of the natural environment?
- Does the presence of individuals at different social distances within natural environments yield varying impacts on restoration?
- Does the presence of individuals at different social distances in natural environments exclusively influence the restorative effects of specific natural conditions, or does it generate diverse effects due to varying natural conditions (i.e., mountain, forest, ocean, wetland, and desert)?
2. Methods
2.1. Social Distancing
2.2. Virtual Reality Natural Settings
2.3. Measurements
2.3.1. Physiological Measurements
2.3.2. Psychological Measurements
2.3.3. Two-Way Analysis of Variance and Tukey Post-Hoc Comparison
2.3.4. Participants
2.3.5. Experimental Procedure
3. Results
3.1. Physiological Restoration
3.2. Psychological Restoration
4. Discussion
4.1. Social Distance Threshold for Restoration of Natural Environment
4.2. Optimal Distance for Restoration of Natural Environment
4.3. Impact of Different Landscape Types on Restoration
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Social Distancing Landscape Type | Mountain | Forest | Ocean | Wetland | Desert |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nobody | |||||
>20 m | |||||
7.5–20 m | |||||
3.8–7.5 m | |||||
1.3–3.8 m | |||||
0.5–1.3 m | |||||
0–0.5 m |
Components of Attention Restoration Theory | Item |
---|---|
Being away | 1. Here I feel free from work and daily routines. |
2. Here I feel free from other people’s demands and expectations. | |
3. Here I do not need to think of my responsibilities and obligations. | |
Extent | 4. The elements here are interconnected. |
5. Everything here harmoniously blends into the environment. | |
6. The surroundings here are coherent. | |
Fascination | 7. There is plenty to discover here. |
8. This setting has many things that I am curious about. | |
9. There are many objects here that attract my attention. | |
10. There are many things in this setting that make me want to stay longer. | |
11. I am absorbed by these surroundings. | |
Compatibility | 12. The environment provides me with the opportunity to carry out activities that I like. |
13. I can handle the types of problems that arise here. | |
14. I can adapt rapidly to this setting. | |
15. There is an agreement between what I like to do and this environment. |
Physiological Indicators | Social Distances | Landscape Types | Social Distance × Landscape Types | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
F | p | η2 | F | p | η2 | F | p | η2 | |
ΦΔSBP | 81.794 | 0.000 ** | 0.311 | 8.344 | 0.000 ** | 0.030 | 0.463 | 0.988 | 0.010 |
ΦΔDBP | 47.104 | 0.000 ** | 0.207 | 3.166 | 0.013 * | 0.012 | 0.481 | 0.984 | 0.011 |
ΦΔPR | 36.441 | 0.000 ** | 0.168 | 1.210 | 0.035 * | 0.004 | 0.550 | 0.962 | 0.012 |
ΦΔGSR | 41.674 | 0.000 ** | 0.187 | 3.203 | 0.013 * | 0.012 | 1.028 | 0.425 | 0.022 |
Psychological Indicators | Social Distances | Landscape Types | Social Distance × Landscape Types | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
F | p | η2 | F | p | η2 | F | p | η2 | |
Being away | 201.250 | 0.000 ** | 0.527 | 0.513 | 0.727 | 0.002 | 0.420 | 0.994 | 0.009 |
Extent | 203.114 | 0.000 ** | 0.529 | 0.691 | 0.598 | 0.003 | 0.503 | 0.978 | 0.011 |
Fascination | 151.865 | 0.000 ** | 0.456 | 0.470 | 0.758 | 0.002 | 0.366 | 0.998 | 0.008 |
Compatibility | 227.452 | 0.000 ** | 0.557 | 0.780 | 0.538 | 0.003 | 0.412 | 0.995 | 0.009 |
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Zhu, L.; Dong, S.; Chen, X.; Zhou, Q.; Li, F.; Wang, G. Does Social Distancing Affect the Stress Reduction and Attention Restoration of College Students in Different Natural Settings? Sustainability 2024, 16, 3274. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16083274
Zhu L, Dong S, Chen X, Zhou Q, Li F, Wang G. Does Social Distancing Affect the Stress Reduction and Attention Restoration of College Students in Different Natural Settings? Sustainability. 2024; 16(8):3274. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16083274
Chicago/Turabian StyleZhu, Liying, Sining Dong, Xin Chen, Qingqing Zhou, Fangying Li, and Guangyu Wang. 2024. "Does Social Distancing Affect the Stress Reduction and Attention Restoration of College Students in Different Natural Settings?" Sustainability 16, no. 8: 3274. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16083274