Promoting Sustainable Well-Being Through Nature-Based Interventions for Young People in Precarious Situations: Implications for Social work. A Systematic Review

James Kutu Obeng (), Katja Kangas (), Ingo Stamm () and Anne Tolvanen ()
Additional contact information
James Kutu Obeng: University of Oulu
Katja Kangas: University of Oulu
Ingo Stamm: University of Jyvaskyla, Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius
Anne Tolvanen: University of Oulu

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2023, vol. 24, issue 8, No 21, 2911 pages

Abstract: Abstract Precarious situations disproportionately affect the well-being of young people. Social workers are concerned with sustainable ways to improve young people’s well-being, and nature-based interventions are proposed as sustainable solutions. We used a systematic review approach to identify how nature-based interventions can promote sustainable well-being. A literature search generated 1753 results, from which 49 peer-reviewed articles were selected for analysis. Young people in precarious situations (i) had underlying social, emotional, and mental health needs that put them at risk of disengaging from education or employment and (ii) were not in education or employment. The most common intervention was wilderness therapy, followed by animal-assisted interventions, outdoor adventure interventions, horticultural interventions, care farming, environmental conservation, surfing therapy, and sustainable construction. The reviewed literature indicates that nature-based interventions promote sustainable well-being by (i) ensuring that well-being was interconnected with environmental, social, and economic sustainability, (ii) fostering connectedness with nature, and (iii) producing enduring outcomes. We further used the Having-Doing-Loving-Being model of sustainable well-being to interpret well-being outcomes, concluding that nature-based interventions enhance young people’s relationship with society and nature. Implications for social work include collaborating with other experts to implement nature-based interventions to address well-being problems, advocacy for the introduction of nature-based activities into schools and recognition of nature-based interventions as alternative avenues for meaningful participation.

Keywords: Nature-based interventions; Young people; Precarious situations; Social work; Sustainable well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-023-00683-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:24:y:2023:i:8:d:10.1007_s10902-023-00683-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... fe/journal/10902/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10902-023-00683-x

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Happiness Studies is currently edited by Antonella Delle Fave

More articles in Journal of Happiness Studies from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().