• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.555-564
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• 2020

Background and objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of an agro-healing program on the relationship satisfaction and emotional change between parents and children. Methods: We sent an official letter to D Office of Education with information and recruitment for the agro-healing program. Then D Office of Education has sent the official letter to elementary schools under the jurisdiction to recruit parents who were willing to participate in the programs with their children. The subjects were recruited by order of application, and 27 families participated, but 20 parent-child teams who attended all sessions and fully participated in the program were ultimately selected. From October 12 to November 16, 2019, a total of 6 sessions of the programs were held once a week at a care farm in Gyeongsangbuk-do. In the morning, they participated in a program that utilizes the resources of plants and animals in the care farm, and later participated in an indoor horticultural program in the afternoon. Results: In the parent-child relationship satisfaction test, it was found that communication was significantly increased after participating in the agro-healing program (p = .047). There were no statistically significant changes in the sentence completion tests written by the children, but their potential perception or attitude towards their parents changed more positively than before according to the content of the sentences. Conclusion: The agro-healing program could strengthen the relationship between parent and child by improving the parent-child relationship satisfaction and children's emotional attitude towards their parent.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.411-422
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• 2020

Background and objective: This study was conducted to find out the effects of healing farm resources and participant satisfaction on the level of stress and loyalty. Methods: The experiment was conducted on 18 subjects who participated in agro-healing activities (aged 49.5 years on average) and the concentration of cortisol, the level of stress and satisfaction with the services and program of a healing farm. The healing-agriculture activities were performed once a week, a total of 7 sessions, for 90 minutes and their saliva was collected before and after the activities. Results: The concentration of cortisol, a stress hormone, was statistically significantly reduced after the healing-agriculture activities in 5 out of 7 sessions. The total cortisol concentration showed statistically significant differences. The 6th session was comprised of different activities, compared to others, such as understanding weeds, managing a garden and making a pizza with fermentation enzymes, and the level of cortisol in the 6th session was the lowest after participating in the agro-healing activities, which indicated that the activities have the positive effect of lowering the level of stress. The level of stress was lowered from 18.39 to 16.78, which was consistent with the results of the concentration of cortisol. The level of satisfaction in the last session was below 50%, which indicated that the owner of the farm might be a little inexperienced in education and marketing on information and safety. The variables of participants including stress and satisfaction with services showed a strong influence on their loyalty. Conclusion: Satisfaction with services and loyalty to the healing farm showed a very high correlation, which was statistically significant. It also showed that participants' stress level and satisfaction with the services and program of the healing farm have a strong influence on their loyalty.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2019

This study was designed to examine agro-healing services and programs provided and operated by farms in Korea. The results of the analysis of the agro-healing programs and operation of farms were as follows. The purpose of the operation of farms was to raise productivity by managing farms in a cooperative way through agricultural production, education and healing, and to raise income by processing and selling agricultural products. It was difficult to access farms by public transport and thus visitors had to use their own cars. The size of farms varied. The main resources utilized in the surveyed programs were plants, rural environments and landscapes, and agricultural products. The programs were conducted using resources that were commonly found in rural areas. Facilities on each farm were equipped with facilities (indoor and outdoor learning place, gardens, vegetable gardens, orchards, etc.) and convenience facilities (parking lots, drinking fountains, kiosks, etc.) to support program operation. However, facilities for the handicapped and accommodation facilities were insufficient. The programs operated on each farm utilized agricultural resources, farm produce, and rural resources and were classified into activities such as making, feeling, and growing. The average number of people who operated the family-centered program was 2-3, having qualifications such as welfare horticultural therapists, forest interpreters, experience instructors, and social workers. In addition, they had expertise in medicinal food, dietary life, and social welfare, and they also had essential expertise required to operate programs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2022

A Care farm is known to have positive effects on various people in psychological, physical, and social aspects. However, care farm services for the disabled, transportation disadvantaged, and socially disadvantaged are limited. This study conducted a demand survey in order to provide basic data for development of the Agro-Healing Virtual Reality Therapy(AVRT) system. The respondents were the ordinary person(n=127) and the disabled person(n=72), and the survey items consisted of 4 categories and 20 items, including intention to use AVRT, requirements for use, factors to be considered when developing the system, and content and program preferences. The intention to use a AVRT was found to be at a high level of 80% or more by respondent characteristics. In addition, similar results were shown in all items such as virtual reality experience, willingness to use, appropriate use time, and willingness to pay by respondent characteristics, and correlation by item was determined through correlation analysis. As for the conditions of use, both sides preferred rural types and were found to have the purpose of healing. However, there were concerns about dizziness in common between system use, and in the case of the disabled person, there were difficulties in purchasing expensive equipment. In the development of the AVRT system, the part of sensory priority, important technology level, and color preference were evaluated, and the preference of content and programs to be developed in the system was identified. Fruit, vegetables, flowers, and animals preferred mandarin, tomato, tulips, and dogs first, horticultural healing preferred harvest management for the ordinary person, plant cultivation for the disabled person, and forest healing and animal education preferred walking and dog-related programs. However, agricultural work was found to be a program with high preference for making processed foods for the ordinary person and creating an animal breeding environment for the disabled person. The result of this study is expected to provide reference data that can be suggested for the development of Agro-healing Virtual Reality Therapy system.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.833-840
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• 2023

Insect-healing program is designed for farm use, and this study attempted to scientifically investigate its healing effect based on application methods. The insects used in the program are Trypoxylus dichotomus, Papilio xuthus, and Bombyx mori. Insect-healing program was conducted on 61 adults of over 50 years old and at two different farms for 12 weeks. Stress, anxiety, insomnia, and cognitive function were measured through pre- and post-surveys. Result of the analysis showed that cognitive function changed positively in direct experienced group (those that encountered live insects) and indirect experience group (those that encountered insects only through photos and videos). However, psychological variables such as stress and anxiety decreased and sleep time increased significantly only in the direct experienced group. These results demonstrate that an agro-healing program that involve the use of insect must include activities such as raising and taking care of live insect to achieve positive psychological healing effects.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.153-163
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• 2019

The study aims to examine the psychological effects of insect-based experience activities. A sample of 167 elementary students was hired for the study. Students in the experimental group participated in insect-based experience activities using swallowtail butterfly. Collected data are analyzed with analysis of variance and paired-sample T-test in SPSS 25.0. The results of this study are as follows 1) Insect based experience activities show positive effects in psychological and physiological aspects, 2) and students and teacher showed high satisfaction in insect-based program. In conclusion, this study contributes to providing fundamental information for the development of agro-healing programs using insect and design guidelines for identifying the characteristics of each healing program. Further research should be extended to different types of student and the development of diverse insect-based activities.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.909-936
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• 2013

This study investigated definition of care farming in which advanced countries in agricultural industry such as Netherlands and Belgium increase their interest and investment, and established a strategy for settlement and development of care farming industry in Korea. For achieving purpose of the study, literature review was implemented to analyze policy, system, related law, workforce of advanced countries in care farming, and experts' conference which consists of 9 representatives such as professors, researchers in areas of agriculture, health, education, horticulture, animal-assisted therapy was implemented. Also survey was conducted targeting 165 people of practitioners in care farming industry. For the result, the concept of care farming in Korea was defined as 'Industry and activity which promotes psychological social physical cognitive health of every Korean people by utilizing agricultural resources(plants, livestock, rural environment, rural culture) or related activity and output', and the purpose, resources, targets of care farming was determined by the definition.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.95-106
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• 2023

Korean healing research has developed over the past 20 years along with the growing social interest in healing. The field of healing research is diverse and includes legislated natural-based healing. In this study, abstracts of 2,202 academic journals, master's, and doctoral dissertations published in KCI and RISS were collected and analyzed. As for the research method, LDA topic modeling used to classify research topics, and time-series publication trends were examined. As a result of the study, it identified that the topic of Korean healing research was connected with 5 types and 4 mediators. The five were "Healing Tourism," "Mind and Art Healing," "Forest Therapy," "Healing Space," and "Youth Restoration and Healing," and the four mediators were "Forest," "Nature," "Culture", and "Education". In addition, only legalized healing studies extracted from Korean healing research and the topics were analyzed. As a result, legalized healing research classified into four. The four types were "Healing Spatial Environment Plan", "Healing Therapy Experiment", "Agricultural Education Experiential Healing", and "Healing Tourism Factor". Forest Therapy, which has the largest amount of research in legalized healing, Agro Healing and Garden Healing which operate similar programs through plants, and Marine Healing using marine resources also analyzed. As a result, topics that show the unique characteristics of individual healing studies and topics that are considered universal in all healing studies derived. This study is significant in that it identified the overall trend of research on Korean healing facilities and programs by utilizing LDA topic modeling.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.521-535
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• 2020

Background and objective: This study investigated plant type and color preference and conducted a psychological assessment for gardening activities of firefighters in a high-risk occupational group. Methods: A survey was conducted on 117 firefighters aged 39.01±9.17 in Sunchang in March 2020 to examine their preferences in plant type and color and conduct a psychological assessment of firefighters on gardening activities. Results: For plant experience and awareness, plant-related event showed the highest score, followed by plant preference tendency and plant growing experience. The level of plant gardening activities was higher among older age and higher job position. As a result of examining the quality of life according to the demographic characteristic with WHOQOL-BREF (World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment Instrument), it was found that the quality of life was higher among the 20s-30s than 50s, firefighter position than fire lieutenant or higher, those with higher average monthly income, and the singles group than married (p < .05). The administration group showed lower scores than the fire suppression group working in the field, showing statistical significance. Most firefighters showed high preference for herbal plants among the 12 types of flowering plants, in the order of Rosmarinus officinalis>Lavandula spp.>Mentha piperita, Calendula officinalis. Pelargonium spp. was preferred the least out of the flowering plants, Lycopersicon esculentum was preferred the most out of 12 types of vegetable plants, while Angelica acutiloba was preferred the least statistical significance. For the preference of plant colors, yellow was the most preferred color, followed by white, blue, orange, red, and green, showing statistical significance. For the psychological survey responses of emotion words toward 6 plants colors, it was found that 'bright' was the emotion felt most strongly by the white, yellow, and orange groups, 'calm' and 'comfortable' by the green and blue groups, and 'fancy' by the red group. Conclusion: The effect of agro-healing programs can be increased by using mostly yellow plants when creating indoor healing gardens at the workplaces of fire officials in a high-risk occupational group, and using herbal plants and Lycopersicon esculentum in the gardens for agro-healing activities.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.137-152
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• 2021

Background and objective: This study was carried out to investigate and analyze the preference for plant fragrance and the psychological effects of a agro-healing activity in 101 firefighters aged 39.71 ± 10.94. Methods: For the psychological evaluation, post-traumatic stress symptoms, Korean occupational stress scale short form (KOSS-SF), emotional intelligence, and job satisfaction were surveyed on the Likert scale. For the preference for plant fragrances, 20 ㎕ of commercially available essential oils from four plant species (Mentha spp., Lavandula spp., Citrus limon, C. sinensis) were absorbed into each test paper and provided to the participants. Results: The rate of post-traumatic stress symptoms was high at 37.6% of the firefighters surveyed.. C. limon fragrance had the highest preference among the four plant fragrances, followed by C. sinensis > Mentha spp. > Lavandula spp. with statistically significant difference (F = 14.256, p < .001). The lower their age, income, and position, and higher the education level, the higher the preference for plant fragrances. And the administrative group had higher preference for plant fragrances than field group. In addition, as a result of examining the correlation between job satisfaction, preference for plant fragrance, post-traumatic stress, emotional intelligence, and job stress for fire-fighters, the higher the job satisfaction, the higher the fragrance preference and emotional intelligence, and the lower the post-traumatic stress and job stress. Conclusion: Therefore, installing a garden using botanical fragrances at workplaces that firefighters can easily access will improve job satisfaction and relieve stress. It can be concluded that applying the fragrance of plants to the healing farming activities at the fire-fighter's workplace can increase the usefulness of the healing activities.