Depression & Anxiety

Birdwatching Improves Student Mental Health: Study

At the end of the experiment, while all groups improved, the birdwatching group ended up with higher scores than both the nature-walk and control groups.
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Birdwatching Improves Student Mental Health: Study
(Quyen Alias/Shutterstock)
Amie Dahnke
5/6/2024
Updated:
5/6/2024
0:00

Students cramming for finals can find some reprieve just by looking outside their windows.

A new study found that birdwatching can reduce stress and improve the mental health of college students, especially those most likely to suffer from mental health issues.

“There has been a lot of research about well-being coming out through the pandemic that suggests adolescents and college-aged kids are struggling the most,” corresponding author Nils Peterson, professor of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University, said in a press release. “Bird watching is among the most ubiquitous ways that human beings interact with wildlife globally, and college campuses provide a pocket where there’s access to that activity even in more urban settings.”

Pandemic Wreaked Havoc on Young Adults’ Mental Health

The study results were published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology and indicate that birdwatching helps people feel better. The study also highlights how many young people struggle with mental health issues, pointing out a study that showed that 60 percent of college students reported mental health challenges like anxiety and depression.
Many of these students were directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic during high school. A study published in Social Science & Medicine Mental Health mentioned that a survey by Best Colleges found that more than 90 percent of students had poor mental health as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social isolation, lack of focus, and anxiety were among the symptoms college students reported in the survey. Other students reported stress, fear, and increased concerns about academic performance. According to the study, college students who already had mental health issues were at an increased risk of suicide and substance abuse.
“It seems like [students and grad students] are groups that are struggling in terms of access to nature and getting those benefits,” Mr. Peterson said in the press release.

Nature a Natural Medicine for Mental Health Issues

In the study, 112 college-age students either participated in birdwatching, a nature walk, or neither for five weeks. Then, the active students switched treatment after five weeks. Students were assessed based on the results of a five-question survey called the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5). The survey asks participants to rate statements about their well-being on a scale of zero to five. One example of a prompt: “I have felt calm and relaxed.” A rating of zero indicates the person has never felt calm and relaxed, while a rating of five means the person always feels calm and relaxed.

The birdwatching group started with the lowest scores. However, researchers found that while all three groups had improved WHO-5 scores at the end of the experiment, the birdwatching group ended higher than the other two groups.

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Unlike other studies that compared pleasant things like listening to birds with unpleasant sounds, like traffic, this study compared birdwatching to a neutral control.

“One of the studies that we reviewed in our paper compared people who listen to birds to people who listened to the sounds of traffic, and that’s not really a neutral comparison,” Mr. Peterson said. “We had a neutral control where we just left people alone and compared that to something positive.”

The study supports a long list of research indicating that nature can improve mental health. The American Psychological Association reports that being in nature can reduce stress, promote cognitive development and flexibility, restore attention, and be recuperative.

The research team believes their findings open avenues for future research, such as why birdwatching helps people feel better.

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Amie Dahnke
Amie Dahnke
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Amie Dahnke is a freelance writer and editor residing in California. She has covered community journalism and health care news for nearly a decade, winning a California Newspaper Publishers Award for her work.
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