• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.51 no.1
• /
• pp.9-23
• /
• 2024

This study investigates the physiological and psychological effects of a nature-based outdoor activity program in an environment reflecting the characteristics of forest and coastal areas on 30 firefighters (average age: 40.4 ± 9.8 years) who are frequently exposed to dangerous situations. Blood pressure, pulse pressure, and heart rate variability were used as physiological measurement indicators, and the Korean versions of PANAS (positive affect and negative affect schedule), WEMWBS (Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale), and PRS (perceived restorativeness scale) were used as psychological measurement indicators. For four days and three nights, the participants experienced programs at Hallyeohaesang Nature Center and the surrounding mountains, seas, and islands, utilizing forest resources such as trekking on forest trails, walking barefoot, taking aromatic footbaths, meditating in forest oxygen domes, and lying on relaxation chairs, and programs utilizing marine resources such as taking a boat to an island, walking on forest trails with seascape views, and sailing on a yacht. Participants' systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure decreased, and participants' positive emotions increased and negative emotions decreased after the program. There was a statistically significant increase in mental well-being and perceived restorative environment. Through this study, it was found that nature-based outdoor activity programs based on forest and marine resources are effective in physiological and psychological stability of firefighters. It is hoped that the results of this study will be applied to other high-risk workers for PTSD, who have high stress levels, by combining forest healing and marine healing, and expanding the scope and diversity of programs in more diverse environments and conditions.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.99-107
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to find out the effects of five senses activities in forests on the reduction or mitigation of daily stress using various forest healing factors such as water, sunlight, topography, phytoncide, landscape, sound, fragrance, etc. The subjects of this study were 40 young children aged 5 in an early childhood education institution located in Cheongju. The children were divided into two groups: 20 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group. The experimental group participated in the program of five senses activities in the forest in total of 12 sessions (1-2 sessions a week), with each session lasting 60 minutes from May 8 to June 16, 2017. The control group, who did not participate in the five senses activities in the forest, participated in the Nuri Curriculum operated by the educational institution. Before and after the program, tests to measure daily stress in three different situations (encountering blame-aggression situation, experiencing anxiety-frustration, and losing self-respect) were conducted on young children and the data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0. As a result, daily stress of the young children decreased in all three situations with statistical significance. Through the five senses activities in the forest, young children could feel the nature by observing and exploring it in the forest, so which reduced their daily stress compared to the activities carried out in the classroom.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.385-396
• /
• 2021

This paper investigated the satisfaction of agro-healing and analyzed its willingness to participate in agro-healing in the future. First, a survey of intentions to participate in agro-healing found that the ratio of participation was 55.6% (125 people). It is analyzed that more than half of teenagers who have experienced agro-healing programs are willing to participate again. Second, a survey of satisfaction with agro-healing showed the highest improvement in agricultural awareness, including increased public interest value of agriculture. This can be seen as a way to raise public awareness of agriculture, as well as the effects of mental and physical health recovery, social integration contributions, and social safety contributions. Third, an analysis of the effect of awareness on the willingness to participate in agro-healing showed that the less significant it was, the higher the awareness, the higher the willingness to participate. In other words, various information delivery means, such as public relations measures, should be prepared to raise awareness of agro-healing. Fourth, it can be seen that those with low satisfaction with expected effects such as health recovery, social safety, social integration, and improved agricultural awareness have a clear difference in their willingness to participate in the future. In other words, the higher the satisfaction level of the agro-healing program, the higher the willingness to participate in the agro-healing industry in the future.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.606-614
• /
• 2017

This study analyzed the effect of forest therapy program on reduction of stress of teachers and their positive and negative emotions based on the survey of 221 teachers who participated in the overnight Happiness School Edu-healing Camp held for teachers by the National Center for Forest Healing. For data analysis, a paired sample t-test was conducted using the SPSS 24.0 program to examine the difference in the stress reaction index of teachers and their positive and negative emotions before and after their participation in the forest therapy program. The results indicated that teachers who participated in the program showed a significant decrease in the stress response index and the values of sub-domain such as physical symptoms, depression symptoms, and anger symptoms. Moreover, all teachers exhibited a significant decrease in stress. This result verifies that the forest therapy program is effective in reducing the stress of teachers and their negative emotions. These results are expected to be used to promote more active forest therapy programs for teachers exposed to a high level of stress.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.429-439
• /
• 2021

Background and objective: This study verified the physiological and psychological effects of plant fragrance therapy to analyze whether the therapy has a forest healing effect on maladjusted soldiers. Methods: This study was conducted from March 14 to May 31, 2020 according to the Green Camp curriculum for 2 weeks per recruit class. Thus, plant fragrance therapy was implemented twice each for three recruit classes. Each session of the program was carried out for 4 hours from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The venue was the garden within the camp and the forest nearby. Forest healing activities using plant fragrances were led by 1 forest education specialist and 1 assistant. The effects of plant fragrance therapy for maladjusted soldiers were analzed analyzed by quantifying physiological and psychological changes through measuring brain waves and stress levels before and after the therapy. Results: As a result of analyzing BRQ and SQ to determine the physiological and psychological healing effect of plant fragrance therapy, both the left and right brain showed higher BRQ and SQ after the therapy with statistical significance. This indicates that plant fragrance therapy on maladjusted soldiers helped positively stabilize their negative psychological and behavioral dispositions, and stabilization of brain waves lowered physical and mental stress and improved self-regulation and immunity. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in ATO. This is the result of analyzing the stress-coping mechanism. Troubleshooting (t = -2.702, df = 61, p = .009), emotional remission (t = -2.173, df = 61, p = .034), pursuit of help (t = -3.286), df = 61, p = .002), and wishful thinking (t = -3.714, df = 61, p < .001) showed statistically significant results. Conclusion: Applying plant fragrance therapy to maladjusted soldiers positively stabilized their negative psychological and behavioral dispositions and helped their self-regulation. Thus, plant fragrance therapy has psychological and physical forest healing effect on maladjusted soldiers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.104 no.1
• /
• pp.150-161
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study was to obtain the basic data for the effective development and operation of forest healing by analysing the preference of adults on the forest therapy program. The survey of 516 normal adults on the forest therapy program was conducted. Using SPSS 21.0 Program, data analysis of descriptive statistics and correlation analysis of each program confirmed number of covariate, and so we conducted a factor analysis to short meaningful data. And then we looked at the forest healing program preference difference according to demographic characteristics(sex, age, residence, occupation) through reliability analysis, frequency analysis, T-test, analysis of variance(ANOVA). Facter analysis was performed by use of the VariMax orthogonal rotation factor analysis to abbreviate 37 forest therapy program. Through this, the program has been reduced such as 7 program group(1: psychology-based treatment, 2: teaching and counselling-based treatment, 3: camping and forest bath-based treatment, 4: diet-based treatment, 5: nature and plant-based treatment, 6: meditation-based treatment, 7: respiration and yoga-based treatment) and 7 independent programs(1: sleeping in the forest, 2: vision quest, 3: soaking in water, 4: walking wearing shoes, 5: viewing the forest, 6: mountaineering, 7: athletics in the forest). With this criterion, the forest therapy program difference in accordance with sex, age, residence, occupation has been investigated. First, it was verified that there was a significant difference between male and female in the group of such as psychology-based treatment, diet-based treatment, mountaineering. Second, there appeared a significant difference in groups such as teaching and counselling-based treatment, camping and forest bath-based treatment, nature and plant-based treatment, respiration and yoga-based treatment, athletics in the forest. Third, according to the residence, there appeared a significant difference in groups such as psychology-based treatment, teaching and counselling-based treatment, diet-based treatment, nature and plant-based treatment, meditation-based treatment, vision quest, mountaineering, athletics in the forest. Fourth, according to the occupation, there appeared a significant difference in groups such as nature and plant-based treatment, medication-based treatment, vision quest, walking wearing shoes, viewing the forest, mountaineering. As shown before, it seems to be necessary that we should be mindful of this investigation which shows variety of preference of adults on the forest therapy program according to demographic characteristics. We expect the results of this study to be utilized as basic data for the development of forest therapy program targeting on adults.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.333-340
• /
• 2019

As the number of students in the multicultural background grows, the interest in their education is also increasing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of forest healing factors on the improvement of language ability and ego-resilience of students from multicultural families. We conducted an after-school forest healing program of ten male and ten female middle school students of a multicultural preparatory school located in ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$-dong in Cheongju, Chungnam Province. The experiment consisted of a total of 12 weekly one-hour (60 minutes) programs from April 12, 2018 to June 26, 2018. The forest healing program is an activity that uses the various environmental factors that exist in the forest to increase the immunity of the human body and restore physical and mental health. To determine the difference in ego-resilience before and after the program, we conducted a paired t-test and analyzed with the SPSS 18.0 program. The results showed that the ego-resilience significantly improved in all sub-factors including the positive thinking ability, problem-solving ability, intimacy ability, emotional adjustment ability, and autonomic behavior ability (p<.001). The descriptive statistics of the language ability showed the improvement in writing errors, pronunciation errors, sentence errors, tense errors, and errors in research and connection. We expect the results of this study can be used as the basic data to improve ego-resilience and language acquisition ability of middle-entry children and students from multicultural families.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.273-288
• /
• 2023

Although many studies have been conducted on techniques and effects that can be applied to forest meditation in domestic forest healing meditation research, there has been little research on the space where forest meditation takes place. Nevertheless, a meditation space is not just a place concept but a forest environment element responsible for the healing function of a forest, i.e., a place containing healing factors, and can be an essential clue to the healing mechanism. Therefore, to determine whether a healing forest meditation space is suitable for meditation, this study selected the attribute items of the meditation space using the Delphi expert survey and then surveyed the user satisfaction of the healing forest meditation space using the IPA (Importance Performance Analysis) technique. The survey was conducted from August to November 2022, targeting 315 adults who used the forest meditation space at the National Center for Forest Therapy, the Saneum Healing Forest, and the Jathyanggi Pureunsup Arboretum in Gyeonggi Province. The result of the IPA analysis showed the average satisfaction with the forest meditation space was relatively high at 4.33 points on a 5-point Likert scale (4.33 points for the National Center for Forest Therapy, 4.34 points for the Saneum Healing Forest, and 4.37 points for the Jathyanggi Pureunsup Arboretum), indicating that the three healing forest meditation spaces were suitable for forest meditation. Satisfaction with the "Sounds of nature" was high in all three forests. On the other hand, all three forests showed a relatively low satisfaction with "Quietness," indicating it to be a priority problem to be addressed. Also, an open-ended questionnaire survey showed that the mediation space's natural elements, such as natural sounds, scenery, air, forest spaces, and scents, had a higher positive impact on meditation satisfaction than artificial elements, such as facilities. Therefore, it is essential to secure sound resources such as the sound of water and birds around the meditation space, and it is also necessary to consider ways to create a meditation forest in an independent area to avoid encounters with visitors and allow only participants in the forest healing meditation program to enter to increase satisfaction with forest meditation.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.565-574
• /
• 2018

Previous studies have shown that forest therapy program can help prevent dementia. However, few studies have focused on low-income elderly people living alone. The current study examined the meanings that the elderly living alone receiving medical care assigned to the urban forest therapy program, as a way to understand the pathways that nature-based intervention affect preventing dementia. Twenty-one participants were recruited and they participated in a five-week urban forest therapy program. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 21 participants who experienced the urban forest therapy program, and analyzed qualitative data using thematic analysis. Results showed that all themes identified were related to connectedness with oneself, neighbors and nature. Awarenesses of change were consisted of positive and negative themes. The themes of positive awareness were improvements of mental and emotional condition, feelings of isolation and loneliness, and health-related lifestyle. The negative themes were terminations of short-term programs and inconvenient access to the urban forest. Based on these data, we suggest an urban green welfare framework for future research and interventions for preventing dementia of underprivileged elderly group.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.109 no.4
• /
• pp.544-552
• /
• 2020

This study investigated the effectiveness of "Healing Stay in Forest," a long-term stay forest therapy program implemented by National Center for Forest Therapy in 2019 with 49 participants by measuring pre- and post-questionnaire responses and physical changes, such as blood pressure, body composition, and HRV. Results confirmed statistically significant reduction in negative emotions and enhancement of autonomic nerve balance in the participants. Regarding the changes in the evaluation of physical fitness based on medical history, some significant differences were observed in grip strength and standing high jump, in which participants with no medical history showed better results than those with medical history. These findings are important for verifying the effectiveness of long-term stay forest therapy (6 nights and 7 days).