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Here's today's feel-good story:
Research from 18 different countries shows that adults with good mental health are more than likely to have spent time playing in and around waters, such as lakes and rivers, as children.
We know that spending time in and around green spaces like parks and woodlands are associated with stress reduction, but we know much less about blue spaces and water's impact on children.
“In the context of an increasingly technological and industrialized world, it’s important to understand how childhood nature experiences relate to wellbeing in later life,” said Valeria Vitale, Lead author and PhD Candidate at Sapienza University of Rome.
“Our findings suggest that building familiarity and confidence in and around blue spaces during childhood may stimulate an inherent joy of nature and encourage people to seek out recreational nature experiences, with beneficial consequences for adult mental health,”