Thank you to Taylor Bradbury, CHEO HALO Research Group Placement Student, Carleton University BHSc, for providing this post.

It is widely accepted that time spent participating in outdoor physical activity (OPA) can have a positive impact on adolescent well-being, including mental health¹. But how much OPA should youth be getting, and to what extent does it improve mental health? A new study by the CHEO Healthy Active Living and Obesity (HALO) Research Group reveals that increasing time spent in OPA may improve various aspects of adolescent mental health.

The study examined the link between OPA and mental health among Canadian adolescents aged 12-17 years. Using nationally representative, self-reported data collected from the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth (CHSCY), we set out to find associations between time spent in OPA and self-perceived mental health, symptoms of anxiety and depression, life satisfaction, happiness, and life stress.

The survey included questions assessing the amount of time participants spent in OPA over the past seven days, with six response options used for analysis , ranging from no OPA, to greater than 14 hours. Participants also answered multiple choice/scale questions regarding indicators of mental wellness and illness including “In general, how is your mental health?”, “How often do you seem very anxious, nervous or worried?” , “How often do you seem very sad or depressed?”, “Using a scale of 0 to 10, how do you feel about your life as a whole right now?”, “How would you describe yourself” (for self-perceived happiness), “Thinking about the amount of stress in your life, how would you describe most of your days?”. Logistic regression analyses were then performed to find the associations between OPA levels and outcomes, adjusting for relevant covariates (age, sex, indoor physical activity, etc.).

The results of the study highlighted that OPA did not have a significant impact on anxiety or depressive symptoms. However, it showed that compared to adolescents spending no time in OPA, those who spent 14 hours or more per week reported experiencing positive mental health indicators, greater life satisfaction, and higher levels of happiness, independent of covariates. These results showed a positive dose-response relationship between OPA and both life satisfaction and happiness, suggesting that the more time adolescents spend in OPA, the happier and more satisfied they tend to be.

Several factors could contribute to the null findings of OPA on anxiety, depressive symptoms, and life stress, including the quality of OPA, the type of outdoor space, interactions with nature, and the safety of outdoor environments. Recent efforts are being made to control for such variables in hopes of finding more definitive associations^2,3. Other studies have shown correlations between perceived stress and nature⁴, however, this study explored outdoor environments with no specific emphasis into the type of outdoor space (natural vs. built). Nature/natural environments may have more benefits on mental health compared to built or indoor environments according to other studies⁵. Also, the cross-sectional nature of this study cannot infer directionality (e.g., does OPA lead to better mental health, or are adolescents with better mental health more likely to engage in OPA?) of these findings. This information should be taken into consideration in future studies and guidelines.

Considering that adolescents experience high rates of mental illness and tend to spend less time physically active and outdoors, these findings inform potential intervention and prevention approaches. This study highlights the importance of OPA on adolescent mental health and provides valuable insights for policy makers regarding guideline recommendations. Namely, setting a goal of 14 hours or more per week (or 2 hours each day) of OPA as a sensible target for adolescents to achieve. This aligns with the current standards outlined in the ParticipACTION Report Card; however, rather than merely substituting indoor time with outdoor time, this research establishes a quantifiable target.

Future studies are needed to better understand the mechanism of OPA and higher life satisfaction and happiness, using longitudinal/intervention studies to determine the directionality of these findings.  Additionally, studies should compare the types of outdoor environments (natural vs. built) and incorporate objective measures of OPA.

This study is set to be published in in Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada Journal, Volume 45:7/8 in July/August 2025. Be sure to check it out!

Taylor Bradbury  is a recent graduate of Carleton University’s Bachelor of Health Sciences program. During the 2023-2024 school year, she completed a placement with the CHEO HALO Research Group under the supervision of Jean-Philippe Chaput. Passionate about mental health and dedicated to a future in the health field working with children and youth, she found this research project to be an incredibly meaningful experience.   

References

1. de Lannoy L, Barbeau K, Seguin N, et al. Scoping review of children’s and youth’s outdoor play publications in Canada. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada 2023; 43(1): 1–13.
2. de Lannoy L, Barbeau K, Vanderloo LM, Goldfield G, Lang JJ, MacLeod O, et al. Evidence supporting a combined movement behavior approach for children and youth’s mental health – A scoping review and environmental scan. Ment Health Phys Act
   2023;24(100511):100511.
3. Fyfe-Johnson AL, Hazlehurst MF, Perrins SP, Bratman GN, Thomas R, Garrett KA, et al. Nature and children’s health: A systematic review. Pediatrics 2021;148(4): e2020049155
4. Jimenez MP, DeVille NV, Elliott EG, et al. Associations between Nature Exposure and Health: a Review of the Evidence. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2021; 18(9): 4790.
5. Christiana RW, Besenyi GM, Gustat J, Horton TH, Penbrooke TL, Schultz CL. A scoping review of the health benefits of nature-based physical activity. J Healthy Eat Act Living 2021;1(3):154–72