Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Department of Design and Environmental Analysis, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 May 12;18(10):5146. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18105146.
Recently, an emerging body of literature has examined the relationships between early life nature exposure and mental health in later life; however, no critical synthesis yet exists regarding the extent and strength of these relationships. This study presents the first systematic review of studies in this growing area. Following the PRISMA framework, we searched six databases (i.e., Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL); conducted identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion analyses; and identified a final set of 29 articles. The review set comprises primarily longitudinal studies, with several cross-sectional studies using retrospective measures of childhood nature exposure. The majority of included studies were published between 2016 and 2020 and conducted in Europe and North America. Five domains of mental health outcomes are associated with early-life nature exposure: incidence of mental disorders, psychiatric symptoms and emotions, conduct problems in children, cognitive function, and subjective well-being. The evidence lends support to an overall beneficial role of early nature exposure on mental health, although inconsistencies are reported. Taken together, the evidence does not suggest that exposure at any given life stage is more saliently associated with mental health outcomes than at others. We discuss the validity concerns and methodological remedies and offer directions for future research.
最近，越来越多的文献研究了早期自然暴露与晚年心理健康之间的关系；然而，目前还没有关于这些关系的程度和强度的批判性综合研究。本研究是对这一不断发展领域的研究进行的首次系统综述。我们遵循 PRISMA 框架，在六个数据库（即 Scopus、Web of Science、MEDLINE、Embase、PsycINFO 和 CINAHL）中进行了检索；进行了识别、筛选、资格和纳入分析；并确定了最终的 29 篇文章。综述集主要由纵向研究组成，其中一些横断面研究使用了儿童期自然暴露的回顾性测量。纳入的研究大多发表于 2016 年至 2020 年，在欧洲和北美进行。五个心理健康结果领域与早期自然暴露有关：精神障碍的发生率、精神症状和情绪、儿童行为问题、认知功能和主观幸福感。证据表明，早期自然暴露对心理健康有整体的有益作用，尽管存在不一致的报告。总的来说，证据表明，在任何特定的生命阶段暴露与心理健康结果的相关性并不比其他阶段更显著。我们讨论了有效性的关注和方法上的补救措施，并为未来的研究提供了方向。
