• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.28-39
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• 2004

This study was carried out to find new perspective of forest recreation program in Gangwon-do. Gangwon-do has now 19 forest recreation sites (national forest 11, public forest 4, private forest 4) where forest interpretation, mountain bike, mountain marathon, mountain ski, forest music concert, various forest class are held. In order to develop the new programs for forest recreation program in Gangwon-do, this study considered culture program, welfare program and education program. For culture program, the experience program in traditional house, the experience in the back region and the experience in special product of mountain village were suggested. For welfare programs, the welfare programs for the old and the handicapped were shown. For education program, forest global village program and personality program were devised. According to introduction of 5 day-work per week, the population for recreation are expected to strongly increase, so Gangwon-do representing the image of tour province should improve continuous concern and various developing programs for forest recreation.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.908-914
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• 2016

Both interests in nature-friendly education and demands for nature experience program are steadily increasing in children education field in korea. This study aims to find out that five-sense experience-activity with healing factors of forest can have an effect on both self-efficacy and respectful recognition of life of children. 5-year-old young children were chosen as the subjects for this study. Test group participated two times a week in the special forest class in a children education institute in Chungju oo-dong while control group did not. Both test group and control group were composed of 20 young children respectively and each group were 11 boys and 9 girls respectively. The five senses experience activity program was conducted two sessions a week from 8 August to 20 September in 2016 and each session was one hour (60 minutes) long. Five senses experience activity is an activity that young children awaken their five senses in the forest, recognize seasonal change with their five senses, build up their selves and become intimate with nature. Before and after the program self- efficacy test and respectful recognition of life test were conducted and the data was analyzed using SPSS 18.0 program. The results indicated that after participating five senses experience activity program both children's self-efficacy which means having positive-thinking and self-confidence and respectful recognition of life which means valuing nature coexisting with nature were improved significantly(p<0.05). Through five senses experience activity young children felt nature freely and to their heart's content with their bodies and five senses experience activity had better positive impacts on children's self- efficacy and respectful recognition of life than classroom activities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.1
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• pp.82-90
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• 2021

In this study, the validity of the forest therapy process, in which forest activities using forest therapy factors lead to immunity promotion and health promotion, was analyzed theoretically and qualitatively to refine and systemize the forest therapy concept. Research and analysis data were collected from the websites of institutions related to forest therapy; 33 theses and 33 original research articles from 2000 to March 2020 were searched for forest therapy key words, as well as the prize winning work of the 2016 forest therapy experience essay. A word cloud was generated by frequency of nouns and adjectives and from the key words in the web pages, theses, articles, and the forest therapy experience essay. Through interpretation of word frequency, the systemic flow of forest therapy was defined. The results suggest that the source of forest therapy's power was a positive experience of the forest and an improved attitude toward nature as well as forest therapeutic factors. The therapeutic effect is maximized through the forest healing program, leading to physical and mental resilience and resistance; consequently, health and immunity are promoted. From this study, forest therapy is proposed as "a health promotion activity for the psychological, physical, and spiritual resilience of the subjects through various environmental factors of the forest, positive experiences, and attitudes toward the forest."

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.502-513
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• 2018

Objectives: Stress hormone (cortisol) can be used to analyze psychological and physiological changes and healing effects before and after in blood and saliva. Here it is applied to scientifically validate the effects of the healthy forest experience in Deogyusan Mountain National Park. Methods: A healthy forest experience program was provided to college students (males and females) at Deogyusan National Park. Stress, hormones (cortisol), blood pressure, pulse, oxygen saturation and stress, anxiety, and depression were measured. This study was designed to objectively analyze the effects of stress hormones before and after. Results: Depression, stress, anxiety, and satisfaction with the forest experience program in Deogyusan National Park were very high in reliability in terms of Cronbach's Alpha: depression scored 0.910, stress 0.558, anxiety 0.934, program satisfaction 0.826, and program effectiveness 0.894. Conclusions: In this study, we utilized the Healthy Forest Experience Program and the 'Health and Medical Center Health Record Book' of the Health Forest Experience Program (Ministry of Environment's Environmental Education Certification Program). In the future, we will seek ways to utilize saliva since it is easier to collect than blood samples and apply the stress hormone cortisol as a saliva authentication program. In addition, by implementing ecological welfare programs in which nature and human beings coexist through systematic preservation and restoration, the national park management can utilize ecological, scenic and cultural services wisely. We expect to be able to provide exploration and welfare services.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.40-55
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• 2015

This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of the forest experience center for children led by the local community as experiential management for forest kindergarten education. For this, an importance and performance analysis was conducted on the forest experience center for children in Geumcheon-gu, which, of the 12 forest experience center for kids in Seoul, is the only one led by the local community. The questionnaire sheet for the analysis consisted of a total of 36 questions, 20 about place facility areas and 16 about management program areas(including 6 questions about the management led by the local community). The questionnaire survey was done during the period between January 12th and January 19th, 2015. The participants in the survey consisted of 15 forest education specialists and 50 teachers from 19 kindergartens who participated in the forest experience program. The number of questionnaire sheets collected and used for analysis was 13 copies and 43 copies, respectively. The mean values of importance and performance on the place facility areas were 4.07 and 3.78 for forest education specialists, and 4.16 and 3.84 for kindergarten teachers, respectively. The mean values of importance and performance regarding the management program area were 4.38 and 4.16 for forest education specialists, and 4.40 and 4.00 for kindergarten teachers, respectively. Both groups evaluated the place facility areas lower than the management program areas. They also evaluated performance lower than importance. In place facility area, 'accessibility', 'safety' and 'connectivity to forest trail', 'loose parts' and 'safety facilities' were required to 'keep up the good work', because they showed higher importance and performance in place facility areas. Even though most items of management as led by the local community including 'forest experience activity support' were evaluated as 'important', some, including 'effort for local revitalization', were evaluated as low in performance. However, as they were evaluated as higher in importance, if they pursue 'concentrate here', it is expected that they will be evaluated as higher in performance. In addition, considering that program areas including 'forest education specialist's role' are labeled under the management led by the local community, it reflected a positive evaluation. As a result, management led by the local community is efficient as a management system for the forest experience center for children in an experiential forest kindergarten education. Going forward, if this management system is durable in 'keep up the good work' and 'concentrate here', the forest experience center for children led by the local community will be an alternative for an effective experiential forest kindergarten education.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.57-71
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of fire officers' experience of traumatic events and subsequent forest healing on their occupational burnout. The results are as follows: First, the experience of traumatic events, social and psychological healing, and relieving stress by strolling had a significant effect on burnout. The more fire officers are exposed to traumatic events, the more they lose self-control in social and psychological aspects, and the lower the level of stress relieved through strolling, the higher the level of burnout. Thi sresult suggests that the more fire office rsare called out for fire fighting, the more they see their colleagues with severein juries, and the higher the level of mental and physical an xiety, the more they areex hausted. Moreover, for es thealing help store duce the irmental and physi calfatig uecaused by traumatic events, thu spreven ting them from suffering from burn out. Second, the experience of traumatic events, social and psychological healing, and relieving stress by strolling had a significant impact on occupational stress. The more fire officers are exposed to traumatic events, the more they lose self-control in social and psychological aspects, and the lower the level of stress relieved through strolling, the higher the level of occupational stress. This result indicates that to relieve job stress caused by fire fighting, increased forest healing activities, including various programs such as psychotherapy, developing interpersonal relationships and self-control, and creating a positive mind-set, can reducejobstress and help fire officers recover from it. Lastly, job stress had a mediation effect on the effects of the experience of traumatic events and forest healing on burnout. This implies that burnout can be prevented when fire officers gain high emotional stability through social and psychological healing and stress-relief strolling over a traumatic experience, and stronger support from the organization and family can keep them from being emotionally drained, thus contributing to the prevention of burnout.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.96 no.2
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• pp.203-207
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• 2007

Restorative effect of forest settings is an emerging issue in the field of forestry. It is also the central question facing those currently engaged in the psychotherapeutic interventions is which treatments work. This study was performed to investigate the efficacy of forest experience on alcoholics' depression. Among 531 participants in forest healing camps, 47 alcoholics who participated all three sessions of the camps were selected for this study. Using pre-test and post-test group design with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), mean changes in alcoholics' depression by completion of the camp was measured. The result of this study indicated that the 3-session of forest camp played significant role in reducing participants depression levels (i.e., positive changes in depression scores).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.49-63
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• 2021

The Forest Visitor Centers for Little Children who means preschoolers is an educational facility that achieves holistic growth by experiencing forests, and it should not be completed by installing specific facilities in the forest environment, but should be a space where preschoolers can play freely in the forest environment themselves. This study comprehensively evaluated the current status of Seoul Forest Visitor Centers for Little Children and suggested space improvement measures to enhance the effectiveness of forest experience. Through the theoretical review, seven spatial elements that enhance the effect of forest experience and six areas composing outdoor play areas were derived to prepare an analysis table for current status evaluation, and field survey studies were conducted on 24 centers in Seoul. Through expert interviews, the physical status was examined from the perspective of childhood education and the experiences of the users were summarized. As a result of the study, the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children is classified into six types according to the location characteristics and spatial structure, and has the characteristics of each type. The effectiveness of forest experience can be enhanced by identifying and revealing the environmental strengths of individual centers. In the case of outdoor experience learning zones, the proportion of exercise play areas was very large. By evenly organizing the forest experience space for each area, it will be possible to provide more diverse experiences to preschoolers. However, the status of uniform facility-oriented cannot be viewed as a fragmentary factor that lowers the effect of forest experience. The key to increasing the effect of forest experience by inducing creative activities is the spatial composition that considers the surrounding natural environment. Facilities should be a medium to help preschoolers' interest move into the forest. This study prepared data to understand the average physical status of the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children and suggested space improvement measures to increase the effectiveness of forest experience. This can be used as basic data for research to improve the quality level of the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children about 10 years after the project was implemented.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.225-250
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• 2022

This study aims to examine the effects of infant's social development forest experience activities through meta-analysis. The final nine studies(total of 165 in the experimental group and 159 in the control group) were selected as a method of systematic review. Meta-analysis on overall effect size estimation, chi-square test, significance analysis, publication bias analysis, and subgroup analysis was performed using the R program. The overall effect size of 9 studies was 1.59, indicating a large effect size. As a result of subgroup analysis of the sub-factors of sociality, autonomy showed the largest effect size at 1.47, the adjusted effect size of cooperation was 1.34, the effect size adjusted for peer interaction was 1.29, and the adjusted effect size for perspective-taking ability was 0.97. All were found to have a statistically significant effect. To analyze the moderating effect, a meta-regression analysis was conducted on the participation period(4, 5~6, 7~8weeks), the number of sessions(6~10, 11~15, 16~20), the frequency per week(1, 2, 5), and the participation time(40, 60, 90, 120, 150min), but there was no statistical difference. Although not statistically significant, the effect size was larger when the participation period was 4 weeks, the number of sessions was 16 to 20, the frequency was 2 times per week, and the participation time was 40 minutes. This results can be usefully utilized by policy makers and forest commentators related to the vitalization of forest education through forest experience activities.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.255-262
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• 2021

This study examined the effect of rope play through forest experience on children's self-confidence. Empirical analysis through the experimental design was carried out on an experimental group of 15 (seven male and eight female children) and a control group of 15 (nine male and six female children). Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for the effect between the experimental and control groups after the experimental treatment showed that the mean of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (F=357.350, p<.001). Rope play through forest experience has a statistically significant effect on the children's self-confidence. Consequently, rope play through forest experience between peers is a beneficial experience that helps improve children's self-confidence. Furthermore, it is a positive play activity to help them with a passive character boost to their self-confidence through cooperation between peers.