Sharing my study findings

Most of the time I am hugely grateful that I chose to study how lockdown was affecting our interaction with nature during Springtime. I can recall many of the conversations I had with people; formally under interview and informally when people discovered what I was studying. Also participants sent me some beautiful imagery from that time (which I’ve curated here). Then it hits me!!! I started this project in April, data collected May and June and am STILL analysing it and so have very little to share. If I already had my doctorate it might have been a different story... I may have a couple of research assistants to help out, the expertise of crafting and negotiating academic papers well and truly under my belt, and therefore the possibility of sharing results sooner rather than later. However, I’m at the beginning of my doctorate journey, which means I am learning on the job and have to follow certain protocols when it comes to sharing data as crucially that insight will form my final thesis (due as the cock crows in 2023). There will be opportunities to write academic papers before then, and hopefully for those papers to be accepted for publishing. Then I will be able to share more insight derived from my interpretation of the research presented and ultimately contribute to the nature-health literature.

Springtime in Lockdown summary 0920.pdf

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In the meantime I pulled together some initial information, mostly descriptive, which I shared with my participants a couple of weeks ago. Take a look at the attached document, which details who took part, where they live and some other interesting facts I am able to share. For example, the average age of the participants was 44 years and this ranged from 18 to 85, meaning many ages were represented. At the time the survey was completed, the average time spent in lockdown was 48 days. 97% of participants had an accessible area of green space with a 10-minute walk from their home. The group averaged a score of 4.04 for nature relatedness, which is the higher end of the population norm of 3-4. Each participant reported an increase in time spent interacting with nature during lockdown; with an average difference across a 7-day period of +13.73 hours.

For the remainder of the year I will be exploring the rest of the survey data, including the follow-up survey data, alongside the 30+ individual interviews I carried out. And when I get to a place where I can share insights, you’ll be the first to know.