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Young people are spending less time in green spaces. This growing nature-disconnectedness occurs at a critical time in 16-25-year-olds’ development and impedes opportunities to realize the mental wellbeing benefits being in green space can provide. With young people experiencing a mental health crisis, understanding how their perceptions of management practices affect their use of green spaces is critical for delivering parks as health infrastructure.
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Target audience
Parks and green spaces managers, urban planners, policymakers, mental health practitioners, community organisations
The problem
Young people are experiencing a mental health crisis. At the same time, 16-25-years-olds spend less time in green space, missing opportunities to realise the mental wellbeing benefits these spaces can provide. Despite this, young people are overlooked in studies exploring a green space-mental wellbeing link. Understanding how management practices affect young people’s use of green spaces is vital for policymakers and practitioners who are increasingly managing parks as health infrastructure to improve health and wellbeing.
What we did and why
We studied how 16-25-year-old Londoners’ perceptions of parks management practices affect their use of these public spaces. Our aim was to address a knowledge deficit regarding the role of spending time in green space and young people’s mental wellbeing. For policymakers and practitioners aiming to manage parks as health infrastructure, this information is essential, given this cohort is at a critical developmental stage for building mental health resilience.
Our study’s contribution
Our findings contribute to evolving knowledge regarding how 16-25-year-olds’ perceptions about parks management practices influence their use of these spaces. We reveal that management practices contribute to feelings of exclusion and detachment, with perceptions that parks are prioritised for other age groups. Growing concerns about maintenance and safety further their nature-disconnection at a pivotal stage in young people’s development. This provides those managing parks as health infrastructure to improve health and wellbeing.
Impacts for city policy and practice
Our research has implications for how parks and green spaces are designed and managed, including practices regarding facilities, events and maintenance. Further, we present new knowledge regarding the need to meaningfully engage with 16-25-year-olds through co-production, co-design and other participatory processes that facilitate their use of green spaces for their mental wellbeing. Additional implications relate to how community organisations more readily include young people in green space management.
Further information at:
London Youth: Providing programmes, including for mental health and outdoor education.
UNESCO Global Youth Community: A youth-led platform for meaningful engagement of young people.
Further information
Full research article:
[OPEN ACCESS] Invisible and overlooked: young people’s perceptions of managing green spaces for mental wellbeing by Meredith Whitten.
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