Nature’s peace: a daily diary study on nature exposure as antecedent of employees’ recovery experiences and affective well-being

Built nature spaces have been increasingly integrated into our urban environments in recent years with the aim of reaping their psychological benefits. However, despite numerous works of research on the relationship between nature exposure and well-being, most studies have looked into the benefits of well-being from the lens of isolated elements of nature, such as natural scenery or animal exposure. This study aims to fill in the gaps by examining the additive and multiplicative relationships between natural scenery exposure and human–animal interaction on affective well-being (i.e., positive affect, negative affect, and stress) through a daily diary study. Over seven days, natural scenery exposure, human–animal interactions, and affective well-being of 514 young adults were assessed. Through multilevel modelling, we found that natural scenery exposure was associated with increased positive affect at the within- and between-person levels. Moreover, human–animal interaction was associated with increased positive affect at the within-person level. No evidence was found for human–animal interaction as a moderator of the relationship between natural scenery exposure and affective well-being. Our findings support the additive, but not multiplicative, relations between natural scenery exposure and human–animal interactions on their influence on affective well-being. The exploratory analysis showed the lack of multiplicative relationship which can be attributed to the distinct mechanism of the effect between natural scenery exposure and human–animal interactions on affective well-being.

Recovery from work is important for promoting employees' well-being but little is known about which environments are most conducive for recovery. This article examines the relationship between recovery and experiencing nature and, thus, provides a link between recovery research and environmental psychology. In two studies, we drew on the effort-recovery model and proposed that contact with nature is associated with employees' recovery experiences and affective well-being. In Study 1, we theorized that appraising nature as esthetic is an underlying mechanism in the relationship between being in nature and recovery. Using an experience sampling approach with multisource data from self-reports and smartphone photos (N = 50, measurements = 411), we found that being in nature was indirectly related to recovery experiences (i.e., relaxation, detachment) and affective well-being (i.e., positive activation, serenity, low fatigue) via perceived attractiveness. In Study 2, we theorized that appreciative contact with nature (i.e., nature savoring) is linked to enhanced recovery and well-being. Using a randomized controlled trial (N = 66), we found that a nature-savoring intervention, compared to a waiting-list control group, had beneficial effects on recovery experiences and positive affective states. Overall, our results suggest that contact with nature is a prototypical setting for employees' recovery, and we discuss theoretical and practical implications of this finding for occupational health psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Purpose Society 5.0, which places humans at the forefront, utilizes Industry 4.0 technologies to enhance social sustainability and quality of life. This study takes an innovative approach by investigating the role of social cyberloafing in promoting social sustainability in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through integrating technological recovery experiences, such as relaxation, psychological detachment, mastery experiences, and control during leisure. Design/methodology/approach Employing the effort recovery model, this study explains whether social cyberloafing affects social sustainability. The empirical data from two hundred and fifty-four individuals from manufacturing and services SME firms in Turkey were collected and analyzed via a structural equation model. Findings Structural analysis indicates that social cyberloafing positively impacts employees’ social sustainability and recovery experiences. Moreover, two constructs of recovery experiences, psychological detachment and relaxation, fully mediate the relationship between social cyberloafing and social sustainability, whereas mastery experiences and control during leisure play insignificant roles. Practical implications These findings challenge the traditional management view of cyberloafing as harmful and distracting. They demonstrate that social cyberloafing can be a beneficial recovery experience, but excessive cyberloafing can also hinder social performance. This insight is crucial for managers and policy-makers, who should consider the holistic effects of social cyberloafing on social sustainability. Originality/value This study offers novel contributions to the effect of social cyberloafing on the social sustainability of SME firms' employees. The findings illustrate how social cyberloafing can serve as a recovery experience and improve social sustainability; however, excessive cyberloafing can also hinder social performance. SMEs must be aware of this potential downside and manage cyberloafing effectively.

The present diary study investigates, at the within-person level, how job satisfaction mediates the relationship between self-rated job performance and recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment from work and relaxation) during off-job time. Furthermore, we explore the effects of these two recovery experiences on couple´s well-being. Data were collected from 145 dual-earner couples (N = 290 participants; N = 1450 occasions) with a daily diary design (five consecutive working days). Multilevel analyses showed that daily job performance positively predicted psychological detachment and relaxation, and that daily job satisfaction partially mediated this relationship. In addition, we found that psychological detachment and relaxation have positive effects on own and partner´s indicators of well-being (i.e., relationship satisfaction and positive emotions). The benefits of recovery go beyond the individual and affect their partner´s level of well-being.

This study examines the role of negative work rumination and recovery experiences in explaining the association between workplace incivility and employee insomnia symptoms. Drawing on the perseverative cognition model of stress and the effort-recovery model, we hypothesize a moderated mediation model in which workplace incivility is associated with insomnia symptoms via negative work rumination. This indirect effect is proposed to be conditional on employees' reported level of recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment from work and relaxation during nonwork time). In examining this model, we further establish a link between workplace incivility and sleep and identify one pathway to explain this relationship, as well as resources that may be used to halt the negative spillover of workplace incivility on sleep. Based on a sample of 699 U.S. Forest Service employees, we find support for a moderated mediation model in which the association between workplace incivility and increased insomnia symptoms via increased negative work rumination was weakest for employees reporting high levels of recovery experiences during nonwork time. Findings from the current study contribute to our understanding of why workplace incivility is associated with nonwork outcomes, as well as point to implications for interventions aimed at promoting employees' recovery from work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Entrepreneurs can benefit from having non-work experiences that help them recover the psychological resources depleted from work tasks. Using the Effort-Recovery Model as a basis for understanding how recovery occurs, this study examines relationships between non-work recovery experiences (i.e. psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control) and well-being (i.e. work engagement, emotional exhaustion, and sleep quality) in entrepreneurs, a unique sample population for studying the relationships between these constructs. We test hypotheses using a cross-sectional survey of 247 early-stage entrepreneurs that founded a business in the prior three years. Findings show that mastery and control experiences have a positive relationship with work engagement, control experiences have a negative relationship with emotional exhaustion, and psychological detachment experiences have a positive relationship with sleep quality. The results also suggest that higher work hours are related to lower relaxation and control experiences, whereas a higher number of employees is related to higher relaxation experiences and feelings of control over non-work time. Comparing these results to studies with employees, one implication is that low psychological detachment may be less harmful in the short-term for early-stage entrepreneurs. A second implication is that there are benefits of multiple after-work recovery experiences (i.e. psychological detachment, mastery, and control).

This multi-source diary study examined the role of partners for employees’ daily recovery from job stress in a sample of dual-earner couples. We hypothesized that employees’ daily psychological detachment from work during the evening should be positively associated with their partners’ daily psychological detachment during the evening. Employees’ affective well-being (positive and negative affect) at bedtime should be influenced not only by their own psychological detachment, but also by their partners’ psychological detachment. Moreover, we hypothesized that the presence of children in a couple’s household should moderate the relations between partners’ psychological detachment on the one hand, and employees’ psychological detachment and affective well-being on the other hand. Fifty-three dual-earner couples completed daily electronic surveys via handheld devices over the course of one week at bedtime. We used dyadic multilevel path modeling to analyze our data. Results showed that employees’ and their partners’ levels of daily psychological detachment were positively related. Employees’ psychological detachment predicted their own positive and negative affect at bedtime. Partners’ psychological detachment predicted employees’ negative affect only in couples without children. Partners’ psychological detachment was not associated with employees’ positive affect neither for couples with nor without children.

Recovery from work substantially contributes to employees’ well-being and productivity but the role of supervisors in fostering recovery is largely unexplored. We introduce supervisor support regarding both work roles (i.e., work support) and nonwork roles (i.e., nonwork support) as interpersonal work experiences that positively relate to recovery. Integrating principles of boundary management theory into the work-home resources model (W-HR model), we examine supervisor support as a predictor of subordinates’ recovery experiences during nonwork time. Based on the W-HR model, we test indirect effects of vitality as a personal resource linking supervisor support to subordinates’ recovery experiences in the evening. Moreover, we extend the WH-R model by integrating working from home as a boundary condition into the WH-R model. Specifically, we suggest that supervisor support could be particularly important for subordinates’ evening recovery on working-from-home days. In a daily diary study over the course of two work weeks (171 employees, 871 days), we found that supervisor work support indirectly predicted subordinates’ recovery experiences via the personal resource vitality. In contrast, supervisor nonwork support directly predicted subordinates’ recovery experiences on working-from-home days (psychological detachment, relaxation, control). Our results suggest that integrating supervisor support in recovery research is important because supervisors supporting both work and nonwork roles positively relate to subordinates’ recovery. Our findings highlight that future research should distinguish between domain-specific support aimed at work versus nonwork roles.

The role of partners and children for employees' daily recovery

The effect of nature exposure, nature connectedness on mental well-being and ill-being in a general Chinese population

Drawing on the job demands-resources model and effort-recovery model, this two-wave study among preschool teachers explored whether job demands (i.e., workload and surface acting) increase work–family conflict over time. The authors further predicted that job resources (i.e., supervisor support and the perceived meaning of work) as well as recovery experiences during after-work hours (i.e., psychological detachment and relaxation) act as buffers and mitigate the detrimental effects of job demands on work–family conflict. This study was conducted among 337 preschool teachers in Chinese societies over the period of 1 year. In line with these hypotheses, results indicated that job demands (i.e., workload and surface acting) significantly increase work–family conflict over time and, more importantly, job resources and recovery experiences during after-work hours protect against increased work–family conflict over time despite high job demands. These findings contribute to work–family research and show how the detrimental impacts of job demands on the family domain can be prevented through enhancing job resources and fostering well-functioning recovery experiences during after-work hours.

Working in early childhood education exposes preschool teachers to a wide variety of work stressors that deplete energy and necessitate recovery. Based on the effort-recovery model and conservation of resources theory, this two-wave study examined the effects of recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment and relaxation) on the association between several work stressors (i.e., work overload, emotional dissonance, and work–home conflict) on the one hand, and well-being outcomes (i.e., vigor, job satisfaction, and insomnia symptoms) on the other. This study was conducted among 298 preschool teachers in China over a period of 1 year. Results showed that continuous exposure to work stressors negatively influences preschool teacher well-being over time and, more importantly, recovery experiences protect against the detrimental effects. These findings contribute to prior literature and show how preschool teachers can avoid the adverse effects of work stressors through fostering well-functioning recovery experiences during off-job time.

Focusing on the definition of recovery as a process, we examined how the four core recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment, relaxation, control, and mastery) develop during the evening. We tested whether the specific developments of recovery experiences are important for next-day favorable mood states-beyond the mean levels of recovery experiences. We collected data from 92 employees who completed daily morning and afternoon surveys over 10 workdays. In the morning surveys, we implemented the day-reconstruction method to assess detailed information about employees' recovery experiences during several episodes of the previous evening. Our final data set included 477 morning surveys with a total of 1,998 episodes and 383 afternoon surveys. Multilevel growth curve analyses showed that, in general, psychological detachment, relaxation, and control follow a positive linear trend and mastery a negative quadratic trend during the evening. Moreover, path analyses showed that the day-level increase of psychological detachment is important for next-day mood. Specifically, we found that after evenings during which employees experienced a higher increase in psychological detachment than they usually did, they had higher favorable mood states in the subsequent afternoon. Further, our results did not support associations between day-level slopes of relaxation, control, and mastery as well as next-day mood. Hence, our study demonstrates that recovery experiences systematically change during an evening and that this change is partially relevant for next-afternoon mood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examined the direct and moderator roles of recovery experiences (psychological detachment from work, relaxation, mastery, and control) in the relationship between psychosocial work characteristics (i.e. time demands, job control, and justice of the supervisor) and occupational well-being (need for recovery, job exhaustion, and work engagement). The study was conducted among 527 Finnish employees from several occupational sectors who were employed in a variety of different jobs. Of the employees, 53% were women and the average age was 42.4 years. The moderated hierarchical regression analyses showed that psychological detachment and mastery were protective mechanisms against increased need for recovery in a situation of lack of job control. Also, relaxation protected against increased job exhaustion under high time demands. In addition, recovery experiences – psychological detachment and mastery in particular – had direct links to occupational well-being. Altogether, the study findings suggest that recovery experiences play a significant role in maintaining well-being at work.

Workplace incivility is a common experience with detrimental individual and organizational outcomes. Personal resources such as recovery experiences can help individuals demonstrate resilience to such adversity. Yet, it remains unknown whether different approaches to daily work recovery contribute to different resilience outcome dimensions. The current study investigated whether psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control recovery experiences were differentially associated with resilience. We assessed resilience across the burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment using a residual approach. Participants were 289 local government professionals who completed self-report measures of recovery experiences, workplace incivility, and burnout. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed distinct patterns of associations. For emotional exhaustion resilience, psychological detachment and relaxation recovery opportunities were significant predictors. In contrast, none of the recovery experiences were associated with depersonalization resilience. For personal accomplishment resilience, only the mastery recovery opportunities emerged as a significant predictor. For comparison, psychological detachment and mastery experiences predicted higher scores on a conventional unidimensional trait resilience measure. These findings underscore the value of conceptualizing resilience as a multidimensional construct, as different recovery experiences appear to contribute to resilience in specific outcome domains. The results suggest that tailoring resilience-building strategies to target the unique needs and challenges faced by employees exposed to workplace incivility may be more effective than a one-size-fits-all approach. Continued research is needed to further elucidate the complex interplay between personal resources, workplace demands, and multifaceted resilient functioning.