Enjoying nature, exercise, social interaction, and affect: A daily diary study

Abstract

This study investigated the pathways linking daily nature enjoyment to affect by testing whether the associations would be fully explained by exercise and social interaction. Participants ( N = 782; 55.6% female; age 25–74, Mage = 47.9) from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) refresher study completed surveys across 8 days. Multilevel models indicated that enjoying nature with others tended to predict affect at the within-person level, while enjoying nature alone did not. However, enjoying nature alone did predict affect at the between-person level. Lastly, many of these associations remained, even while controlling for exercise and social interaction.