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2018 NO.1
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Can forest bathing in spring enhance the positive psychological response of university students: A pilot study in Northeast China

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Can forest bathing in spring enhance the positive psychological response of university students: A pilot study in Northeast China
Wei Hongxu
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun,
Abstract:
Forest bathing is well known to be benefi- cial of the visitors’ psychological changes with better emotion and mood. Most understanding about the psy- chological change of university students in response to forest bathing is mainly obtained by the profile of mood states (POMS) method: a psychological rating scale to assess the transient and distinct mood states. Although some other studies explored to use a new questionnaire to assess the psychological change of university students in the urban park, more detailed information is scarce. In this study, 23 university students (12 female; aged 20-23) were recruited to walk for 3.5 hours in Nanhu forest park, Changchun, China on 22 and 23 May 2018, when they were arranged to walk in an urban routine simultaneously. It was found that these students instan- tiated more positive emotion in the urban forest. These positive psychological changes were accompanied by improved perception about personal details and school work. In contrast, participants walking in the urban environment did not feel any psychological change. Therefore, forest bathing can be taken as an active way to stimulate more positive psychological changes com- pared to the urban experience. However, as a pioneer project, this study suggests more studies by designing more specific questions about social contact affairs for university students’ forest bathing.
Key words:   Forest therapy · Human being · Well-being · stress · Anthropogenic activities · City