Sia Angelia, Tan Puay Yok, Wong John Chee Meng, Araib Sophianne, Ang Wee Foong, Er Kenneth Boon Hwee
National Parks Board, Singapore, 1 Cluny Road, Singapore Botanic Gardens, 259569, Singapore.
National University of Singapore, Department of Psychological Medicine, NUHS Tower Block, Level 9, 1E Kent Ridge Road, 119228, Singapore.
Urban For Urban Green. 2022 Feb;68:127448. doi: 10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127448. Epub 2021 Dec 18.
To curb the spread of Covid-19, Singapore, like other cities, had to impose movement restriction and social distancing measures that may affect the well-being of its residents. In this paper, we assessed the potential benefits of gardening on the mental well-being of Singapore residents, based on the concept of mental resilience. We hypothesized that gardening activities promote mental resilience. A survey was administered on 8,786 participants of a "Gardening with Edibles" programme, measuring their mental resilience status, engagement in gardening activities and socio-demographic information. The mental resilience scores of participants who engaged in weekly gardening were compared with the scores derived from another survey conducted during the pandemic on an online community comprising demographically representative respondents with an interest on Covid-19 related community care. The results showed that the mental resilience of those who gardened was statistically significantly higher than the online community. Within the gardening group, those with less than one hour of weekly gardening time had significantly lower scores in their total mental resilience, and five out of seven resilience factors, "emotional regulation", "relationship", "confidence", "positive thinking" and "spirituality", compared to those with more weekly gardening time, showing that the efficacy of the mediating effects may peak at a weekly gardening time of between one to four hours. Home gardening may be an effective way for people living in densely populated cities to interact with nature and build mental resilience during the pandemic.
为遏制新冠病毒19的传播，新加坡与其他城市一样，不得不实施可能影响居民福祉的行动限制和社交距离措施。在本文中，我们基于心理复原力的概念，评估了园艺对新加坡居民心理健康的潜在益处。我们假设园艺活动能促进心理复原力。对一个“可食用植物园艺”项目的8786名参与者进行了一项调查，测量他们的心理复原力状况、参与园艺活动的情况以及社会人口信息。将每周参与园艺的参与者的心理复原力得分，与在疫情期间对一个由对新冠病毒19相关社区护理感兴趣的具有人口统计学代表性的受访者组成的在线社区进行的另一项调查得出的得分进行比较。结果显示，从事园艺的人的心理复原力在统计学上显著高于在线社区。在园艺组中，每周园艺时间少于一小时的人在总体心理复原力以及七个复原力因素中的五个，即“情绪调节”“人际关系”“信心”“积极思维”和“精神性”方面的得分，显著低于每周园艺时间更长的人，这表明中介效应的功效可能在每周园艺时间为一到四小时时达到峰值。家庭园艺可能是居住在人口密集城市的人们在疫情期间与自然互动并建立心理复原力的有效方式。
