The impact of outdoor activities on adolescents' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Outdoor activities have always been important in determining an individual's physical and mental health, and this is especially true for adolescents. The value of participating in outdoor activities cannot be stressed in the fast-paced, technologically driven world of today when youngsters are often engrossed in screens and lead sedentary lives.With the potential to have significant effects on health and well-being, COVID-19 is changing how people communicate with their surroundings. To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on teenagers' engagement in outside activities and subjective well-being (SWB), as well as the potential protective benefits of outdoor activity on declining SWB. We conducted a representative survey of young people age 10 to 18 using a panel (n = 624) between April 30 and June 15, 2020. In what way often do people engage in outdoor activities before and during the epidemic. The results of paired t tests showed drops in both engagements in outdoor recreation and SWB. Strong correlations between alterations to outside games (B = 0.44, p <0.001) and nature based activities (B = 0.22, p = 0.017) were found in a regression model looking at relations between changes in SWB ( = 0.42). The SWB of all adolescent environments who engaged in these activities throughout the epidemic showed less of a drop.The results highlight the importance of providing youth with outdoor recreation alternatives during times of crisis and demonstrate that time's crucial function spent outside and playing in nature in boosting teenagers' ability to pressures like the COVID-19 outbreak.