Understanding the nature-wellbeing relationship in adults: a qualitative metasynthesis review

The natural environment is increasingly acknowledged as an important factor for influencing human health and wellbeing, with growing agreement among policymakers, researchers, and practitioners of its benefits. While nature access and quality are important considerations, wellbeing benefits may be more closely linked to individuals' perceptions as opposed to the environmental characteristics. Due to a complex of personal and socio-cultural factors influencing the nature-wellbeing relationship, traditional linear models may not be sensitive enough to explore the nuanced, context dependent processes of how people relate to nature. To address this gap, we carried out a qualitative metasynthesis review of 49 studies exploring how direct experiences of living nature can impact human wellbeing for adults. Through iteration, interpretation and critique, the findings were organised into a theoretical framework. The review provides deeper and more nuanced understandings of the nature-wellbeing relationship than existing pathway models by unpacking how therapeutic nature encounters are formed through embodied sense-making, shifting attention from objective exposure to subjective experience. Findings highlight the importance of how we relate to nature through multisensory experiences and attunement. The review also demonstrates that the diverse wellbeing outcomes people experience from nature, both hedonic and eudemonic, can only be fully understood by acknowledging how individuals make meaning from their lived experiences, recognising that emotion-laden interpretation is central to human nature. The findings have both theoretical and practical relevance, highlighting the importance of: integrating experimental and more tacit forms of knowledge; relational values; and person-centred approaches to designing nature programmes and spaces.