“Pause & Refresh”: Virtual nature as a health-promoting measure for university students

IVN can contribute to alleviating stress and increase engagement with nature among university students. Collaborative and participatory approaches can enhance the impact og IVN interventions.

Background: University students often experience mental health challenges and high levels of stress, while at the same time tending to spend less time in contact with nature compared with older demographics. Immersive Virtual Nature (IVN) can alleviate stress, enhance psychological states, and foster feelings of nature connectedness among students, supplementing and, possibly, encouraging visits to naturalistic locations. Through a participatory development approach, this study aimed at developing and evaluating an IVN intervention to promote health and nature engagement among university students at the University of South-Eastern Norway – Campus Drammen.
Methods: The project is part of Drammen City’s contributions to the NetZeroCities - Pilot Cities Programme, which received funding from the H2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement n°101036519. A mixed-methods approach with a sequential explanatory design was employed. The initial quantitative strand consisted of an experimental trial testing a IVN prototype. Fifty-four university students experienced a 3-minute IVN reproducing a naturalistic location near the university campus, either in a winter or a summer version. Perceived stress, affect state, nature connectedness, and intention to visit the location were assessed before and after the IVN experience. Additionally, the students were contacted one week later to report whether they visited the location. The subsequent qualitative strand included two focus groups with students (n = 5) and other experts (a therapist and a student adviser) to explore their perceptions regarding the IVN and discuss suggestions on how it might be improved and delivered. The preliminary findings were presented and discusses during a workshop with two representatives of the Students’ Welfare Organizations for further insights.
Results: The integrated findings indicated that the IVN elicited short-term psychological benefits including reduced stress, improved affect state, and increased levels of nature connectedness. The potential of IVN of encouraging visitation of local nature was less clear. Further, the focus group and workshop provided insights on how to best refine and implement the IVN intervention, including details about the logistics and content of the IVN experience. The final IVN intervention resulted from the participatory process will be launched and made available to students in Campus Drammen during the fall semester 2024.
Conclusions: This project contributes to understanding the potential of IVN as a means of health promotion and environmental awareness among university students, emphasizing the value of adopting collaborative and participatory designs in the development of interventions targeting this vulnerable social group.