Family-based nature activities promote physical activity, relaxation, and improved mood, while fostering family communication and fostering better relationships.

Why Families Go Outside: An Exploration of Mothers’ and Daughters’ Family-Based Nature Activities

Engagement with nature during outdoor recreation in Finland enhances well-being for young people and families by promoting calmness, close interaction, and perceived affordances that enhance their well-being.

Engaging with nature: nature affords well-being for families and young people in Finland

Recontextualizing mentalization-based family rehabilitation to the outdoors can strengthen intra-familial attuned interaction and emotional connectedness, while providing health benefits and connecting families to nature.

Restoring Connectedness in and to Nature: Three Nordic Examples of Recontextualizing Family Therapy to the Outdoors

Outdoor activities and spending time in natural environments can improve children's mental and physical health, promoting a more active lifestyle and reducing health disparities.

Using nature and outdoor activity to improve children's health.

Nature prescription programs show promise in promoting health behaviors and outcomes for at-risk children and families, but more research is needed to measure patient adherence, long-term health outcomes, and provider participation.

Nature Prescriptions for Health: A Review of Evidence and Research Opportunities

Parents of youth ages 10-15 identify intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints as barriers to participation in nature-based outdoor experiences, which can help improve family-inclusive outdoor recreation experiences.

Parental perceptions of constraints to family participation in nature-based, outdoor experiences.

Participation in environmental enhancement and conservation activities can improve adult health and well-being by increasing physical activity, community connections, and self-esteem.

Participation in environmental enhancement and conservation activities for health and well-being in adults: a review of quantitative and qualitative evidence.

Nature-based interventions, such as gardening, green exercise, and nature-based therapy, effectively improve mental health outcomes in adults, with optimal doses ranging from 20 to 90 minutes.

Nature-based outdoor activities for mental and physical health: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Exercise in natural environments is associated with greater mental wellbeing benefits compared to indoor exercise, but the long-term sustainability of these effects remains unclear.

Does participating in physical activity in outdoor natural environments have a greater effect on physical and mental wellbeing than physical activity indoors? A systematic review

Spending time in outdoor environments, particularly green spaces, may reduce the experience of stress and improve health, as evidenced by changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and self-report measures.

Does spending time outdoors reduce stress? A review of real‐time stress response to outdoor environments

Outdoor health promotion programs for adults with mental or chronic physical health problems can increase competence, autonomy, and relatedness, offering great potential for community-based health promotion.

Being and doing in the outdoors brings something extra! Evaluating the Danish Healthy in Nature Project

Outdoor physical activity promotes health and social benefits, and should be strongly promoted globally to prevent diseases like vitamin D deficiency, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, and myopia.

Outdoor physical activity bears multiple benefits to health and society.

Nature-based activities, such as gardening and horticultural therapy, positively impact the health and well-being of older people, offering insights for occupational therapists to apply in their practices.

The use of nature - based activities for the well-being of older people: An integrative literature review.

Incorporating natural and play-focused elements into outdoor spaces may effectively improve physical activity and social connectedness among children and youth.

Physical activity and social connectedness interventions in outdoor spaces among children and youth: a rapid review.

Being outdoors and in nature enhances subjective vitality, with nature scenes being the most effective stimuli.

Vitalizing effects of being outdoors and in nature

Physical activity in natural outdoor environments is associated with higher wellbeing, but there is limited evidence to support superior benefits compared to indoor activity.

Does Physical Activity in Natural Outdoor Environments Improve Wellbeing? A Meta-Analysis

Outdoor after-school activities promote adolescent health by increasing physical activity, improving sleep, reducing stress, and fostering social connectedness and autonomy.

Get Outside! Promoting Adolescent Health through Outdoor After-School Activity

Green spaces with varied activities, rather than just attractiveness, positively influence residents' physical activity and overall health.

Green Physical Activity Indicator: Health, Physical Activity and Spending Time Outdoors Related to Residents Preference for Greenery

Outdoor therapies can improve mental health, but their widespread adoption requires further research on dose-duration-response relationships and social levers to overcome social obstacles.

Bringing Outdoor Therapies Into Mainstream Mental Health

Nature-based interventions can improve mental and physical health, with enablers like biodiversity, wilderness, accessibility, opportunities for physical activity, and reduced pollution enhancing their impact.

Enabling Health Outcomes of Nature-based Interventions: A Systematic Scoping Review

How can I use nature and outdoor activities to improve my family's health?

These studies suggest that engaging in nature and outdoor activities can improve your family's physical and mental health, enhance family relationships, and promote well-being through increased physical activity, relaxation, and emotional connectedness.