Care Farming Program for Family Health: A Pilot Study with Mothers and Children

A-Young Lee, Seon Ok Kim, Gyung Mee Gim, Dae Sik Kim and Sin-Ae Park
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A-Young Lee: Department of Environmental Health Science, Sanghuh College of Life Science, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Korea
Seon Ok Kim: Department of Bio and Healing Convergence, Graduate School, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Korea
Gyung Mee Gim: Research Policy Bureau, Rural Development Administration, Jeonju 54875, Korea
Dae Sik Kim: Department of Agricultural and Rural Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea
Sin-Ae Park: Department of Environmental Health Science, Sanghuh College of Life Science, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Korea

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: We designed a pilot study to develop a family interaction model-integrated a care farming program with mother-child pairs as the participants. In this pilot study, we aimed to assess the effects of the care farming program on communication skills and psychological health in families. Sixteen mother-child pairs in Sejong, South Korea participated in this study. The families participated in a care farming program once a week for six weeks (90 min per session) between May and July 2018. The care farming program was developed based on parenting education skills, strengths-based cognitive behavioral therapy, and the emotional intelligence model; the result was a family interaction model intended to improve communication and psychological health among mothers and children. The program consisted of gardening activities such as making a garden plot, planting transplants, harvesting, and cooking the harvested crops. Upon completion of the six-session program, we evaluated communication with the Parent-Children Communication Inventory, depression with the Beck Depression Inventory, and resilience with the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale among the mothers. We also evaluated emotional intelligence among the children with the Emotional Intelligence Scale. According to post-intervention results, mothers showed significantly increased resilience, improved communication skills with their child, and decreased depression, while children showed significantly improved emotional intelligence ( p < 0.05). Despite the study’s limitation in establishing causality between the care farming program and the observed effects on family health, the care farming program clearly contributed to the observed improvements of mother-child communication skills, mothers’ psychological health, and children’s emotional intelligence, which in turn improved overall family health.

Keywords: green care; gardening; horticultural therapy; social farming; socio horticulture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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