Background

A growing body of evidence has associated contact with green spaces with improved mental health and wellbeing in adults. Social contacts has been postulated as a potential mechanism underlying such effects. However, the available evidence on the association between green spaces and self-satisfaction and also the mediatory role of social contacts in health benefits of green spaces in adolescents is still very scarce. We aimed to evaluate the association of time spent in different types of green spaces with self-satisfaction and social contacts in adolescents. We also investigated the mediatory role of social contacts in the association of green space use and self-satisfaction.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was based on a population-representative sample of 10,856 adolescents (10–18 years old) living in urban and rural districts across 30 provinces of Iran (2015). Data on the time spent in green spaces (separately for parks, forests and private gardens), self-satisfaction, social contacts (number of friends and time spent with friends), and socio-demographic characteristics were obtained through questionnaires from parents and children. Logistic mixed effects models with recruitment centre as the random effect were developed to estimate associations adjusted for relevant covariates.

Results

More time spent in green spaces was associated with improved self-satisfaction and social contacts. While for the self-satisfaction, there was no indication for effect modification by sex, socioeconomic status (SES), and urbanity, we observed stronger associations for older adolescents (> 14 years old). For social contacts, we found indications for stronger associations for boys, older adolescents, those residing in rural areas, and those from lowest and highest SES groups. Social contacts could explain more than half of the association between green spaces use and self-satisfaction.

Conclusions

Our observed enhanced self-satisfaction and social contacts associated with more time spent in green spaces could provide policymakers with measures to improve mental wellbeing of adolescents. Further studies are required to replicate our findings in other populations with different climates, cultures and lifestyles.

中文翻译：

---

青少年使用绿色空间，自我满足和社交接触：一项基于人群的CASPIAN-V研究

背景

越来越多的证据表明，与绿色空间的接触可以改善成年人的心理健康和幸福感。社会交往被认为是潜在的潜在影响机制。但是，关于绿色空间与自我满足之间的联系以及社会接触在青少年绿色空间对健康的益处中的中介作用的可用证据仍然非常匮乏。我们旨在评估青少年在不同类型的绿色空间中所花费的时间与自我满足和社会交往之间的联系。我们还调查了社交联系在绿色空间使用与自我满足之间的中介作用。

方法

这项横断面研究基于居住在伊朗30个省（2015年）的城市和农村地区的10856名青少年（10-18岁）的人口代表性样本。通过父母和儿童的问卷调查，获得了在绿色空间中花费的时间（分别用于公园，森林和私家花园），自我满足感，社会交往（朋友数量和与朋友度过的时间）以及社会人口统计学特征的数据。建立了以招聘中心为随机效应的Logistic混合效应模型，以估计针对相关协变量进行调整的关联。

结果

在绿色空间上花费更多的时间与改善的自我满意度和社交联系有关。尽管出于自我满足，没有迹象表明性别，社会经济地位（SES）和城市性会影响效果，但我们观察到年龄较大的青少年（> 14岁）的关联性更强。在社会交往方面，我们发现了与男孩，年龄较大的青少年，居住在农村地区的人以及来自最低和最高SES组的人之间的联系更加紧密的迹象。社会交往可以解释绿色空间使用与自我满足之间一半以上的关联。

结论

我们观察到的自我满足感增强以及与在绿色空间中花费更多时间相关的社会联系可以为政策制定者提供改善青少年心理健康的措施。需要进一步的研究来在不同气候，文化和生活方式的其他人群中复制我们的发现。