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Rationale, Feasibility, and Acceptability of the Meeting in Nature Together (MINT) Program: A Novel Nature-Based Social Intervention for Loneliness Reduction with Teen Parents and Their Peers

Recently, there has been an increase in feelings of loneliness and mental health conditions among adolescents. Within this population, parenting teens are at an increased risk for these conditions. Outdoor experiences are shown to be an antidote to loneliness and a way to promote social connectednes...

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Autores principales: Sachs, Ashby Lavelle, Coringrato, Eva, Sprague, Nadav, Turbyfill, Angela, Tillema, Sarah, Litt, Jill
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518349/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36078775
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191711059
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author Sachs, Ashby Lavelle
Coringrato, Eva
Sprague, Nadav
Turbyfill, Angela
Tillema, Sarah
Litt, Jill
author_facet Sachs, Ashby Lavelle
Coringrato, Eva
Sprague, Nadav
Turbyfill, Angela
Tillema, Sarah
Litt, Jill
author_sort Sachs, Ashby Lavelle
collection PubMed
description Recently, there has been an increase in feelings of loneliness and mental health conditions among adolescents. Within this population, parenting teens are at an increased risk for these conditions. Outdoor experiences are shown to be an antidote to loneliness and a way to promote social connectedness by amplifying the processes for supporting social relationships. In 2020–2021, we piloted the 8-week Meeting in Nature Together program (MINT) at a charter school for pregnant and parenting teenagers in Colorado, USA. MINT aimed to promote relatedness and nature connection for students ages 14 to 19. MINT included online and in-person group meetings with educational content, creative activities, discussion, park excursions, mindfulness activities, journaling, and nature photography. Here, we ask, can a school-level nature-based social intervention reduce loneliness among pregnant and parenting teens by promoting and sustaining social connections? How acceptable is MINT to participants? Methods included audiovisual recording transcriptions, surveys, and observation field notes. Results suggest that MINT fostered social connections through a tailored nature-based intervention delivered to a typically isolated community in culturally sensitive, developmentally appropriate ways. MINT proved feasible and effective as participants reported high levels of satisfaction and interest in continuing to engage in activities promoted in MINT.
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spelling pubmed-95183492022-09-29 Rationale, Feasibility, and Acceptability of the Meeting in Nature Together (MINT) Program: A Novel Nature-Based Social Intervention for Loneliness Reduction with Teen Parents and Their Peers Sachs, Ashby Lavelle Coringrato, Eva Sprague, Nadav Turbyfill, Angela Tillema, Sarah Litt, Jill Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Recently, there has been an increase in feelings of loneliness and mental health conditions among adolescents. Within this population, parenting teens are at an increased risk for these conditions. Outdoor experiences are shown to be an antidote to loneliness and a way to promote social connectedness by amplifying the processes for supporting social relationships. In 2020–2021, we piloted the 8-week Meeting in Nature Together program (MINT) at a charter school for pregnant and parenting teenagers in Colorado, USA. MINT aimed to promote relatedness and nature connection for students ages 14 to 19. MINT included online and in-person group meetings with educational content, creative activities, discussion, park excursions, mindfulness activities, journaling, and nature photography. Here, we ask, can a school-level nature-based social intervention reduce loneliness among pregnant and parenting teens by promoting and sustaining social connections? How acceptable is MINT to participants? Methods included audiovisual recording transcriptions, surveys, and observation field notes. Results suggest that MINT fostered social connections through a tailored nature-based intervention delivered to a typically isolated community in culturally sensitive, developmentally appropriate ways. MINT proved feasible and effective as participants reported high levels of satisfaction and interest in continuing to engage in activities promoted in MINT. MDPI 2022-09-04 /pmc/articles/PMC9518349/ /pubmed/36078775 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191711059 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sachs, Ashby Lavelle
Coringrato, Eva
Sprague, Nadav
Turbyfill, Angela
Tillema, Sarah
Litt, Jill
Rationale, Feasibility, and Acceptability of the Meeting in Nature Together (MINT) Program: A Novel Nature-Based Social Intervention for Loneliness Reduction with Teen Parents and Their Peers
title Rationale, Feasibility, and Acceptability of the Meeting in Nature Together (MINT) Program: A Novel Nature-Based Social Intervention for Loneliness Reduction with Teen Parents and Their Peers
title_full Rationale, Feasibility, and Acceptability of the Meeting in Nature Together (MINT) Program: A Novel Nature-Based Social Intervention for Loneliness Reduction with Teen Parents and Their Peers
title_fullStr Rationale, Feasibility, and Acceptability of the Meeting in Nature Together (MINT) Program: A Novel Nature-Based Social Intervention for Loneliness Reduction with Teen Parents and Their Peers
title_full_unstemmed Rationale, Feasibility, and Acceptability of the Meeting in Nature Together (MINT) Program: A Novel Nature-Based Social Intervention for Loneliness Reduction with Teen Parents and Their Peers
title_short Rationale, Feasibility, and Acceptability of the Meeting in Nature Together (MINT) Program: A Novel Nature-Based Social Intervention for Loneliness Reduction with Teen Parents and Their Peers
title_sort rationale, feasibility, and acceptability of the meeting in nature together (mint) program: a novel nature-based social intervention for loneliness reduction with teen parents and their peers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518349/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36078775
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191711059
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