Abstract
Reviewed research reveals a lack of young people's voices articulating if and how urban nature supports their mental health and wellbeing. This paper presents qualitative research with young multi-ethnic urban residents living in a northern UK city and offers an important counter-narrative to the pervasive notion of childhood nature-deficit disorder. Using interviews and creative arts workshops, we explored the value of urban nature for the mental health and wellbeing of 24 young people aged 17-27 years, 9 of whom had lived experience of mental health difficulties. Trees, water, open spaces and views were frequently experienced nature typologies offering benefits. Deteriorating landscapes, young people's shifting identities and perceived time pressures disrupted support. Young people expressed how urban nature encounters were experienced as accepting and relational, offering a: stronger sense of self; feelings of escape; connection and care with the human and non-human world.
Highlights
[This nature place would] just like give me a hug basically, like ‘here’s a hug’, this is a gift from me to you and like these are all of the resources that you’ll ever need: you’ve got the ground to ground you, you’ve got the sky to inspire you, [laughs] you’ve got the trees and how well rooted they are and, that offer you security and like you can recognise the cycles of death and life and you can let them come and go as you please (Mina)
A shortage of mental health professionals and health resources directed at youth mental health in the UK (National Audit Ofice, 2018) shifts much of the challenge in providing support for young people to wider society and this potentially calls for new ways of thinking and resourcing
After presenting and critiquing research literature and pertinent public discourses, we describe the qualitative methods of our study with 24 young people living in Shefield, a diverse and, in parts, deprived northern UK city of around 600, 000 residents
Summary
[This nature place would] just like give me a hug basically, like ‘here’s a hug’, this is a gift from me to you and like these are all of the resources that you’ll ever need: you’ve got the ground to ground you, you’ve got the sky to inspire you, [laughs] you’ve got the trees and how well rooted they are and, that offer you security and like you can recognise the cycles of death and life and you can let them come and go as you please (Mina). Previous psychological and planning studies have articulated particular mental wellbeing beneits of nature or greenspace access for people living in deprived urban areas (Ward Thompson, Aspinall and Roe, 2014; Wells and Evans, 2003; Rigolon and Flohr, 2014) and for those with ethnic backgrounds, who are thought to have reduced access to high quality greenspaces compared with the general population (Mceachan et al, 2018) To these studies, we add a much needed qualitative and detailed account of multi-ethnic, deprived urban youth experiences, expanding the ields of environmental and health justice research. We build on a corpus of work that addresses the implications of urban environments and urban living upon mental health and wellbeing (Peen et al, 2007; Lederbogen et al, 2011; Gruebner et al, 2017). Evered (2016) and So€derstro€m et al (2016) provide summaries of studies which have suggested associations between urbanicity and higher incidences of psychosis and sometimes severe depression
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