The effects of outdoor therapy on depression and anxiety: a quantitative review

Author

Lindsey N. Wheeler, Western Kentucky UniversityFollow
Steven R. Wininger, Western Kentucky UniversityFollow

Volume

28

Number

2

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Date

2023

Abstract

The goal of this research was to assess the effectiveness of outdoor therapy on depression and anxiety across different moderators via a quantitative review. While there are studies that look at the effectiveness of outdoor therapy on psychological outcomes, there is a lack of synthesis of the research investigating moderators. A literature review was conducted and six studies were included in the analysis. Cohen’s d was calculated for each study. We examined the following moderators: intervention type, intervention duration, age, and outcome measurement. The effects of outdoor therapy were greater for anxiety (d=0.65, n=1215) than depression (d=0.43, n=115). Within the anxiety results, the average effect size for adolescents (d=0.75, n=979) was greater than the adult effect size (d=0.27, n=236).

Keyword

depression; anxiety; outdoor therapy

Discipline

Psychology

Document Type

article

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Recommended Citation

Wheeler, Lindsey N. and Wininger, Steven R. (2023) "The effects of outdoor therapy on depression and anxiety: a quantitative review," Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 28: No. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol28/iss2/4