How important are home gardens and spending time outside for well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic? Comparing and combining data from 2020 to 2021

Abstract

Recent studies find that people’s use of nature during the COVID-19 pandemic, including home gardens and public green spaces, correlates positively with measures of subjective well-being. To further investigate this relationship, we replicated a study conducted in 2020 in Germany, which focused on comparing garden owners and non-garden owners. Almost exactly one year after the original study in 2020, we collected matched data from n = 490 people living in Germany in 2021. We again found that garden owners had significantly greater life satisfaction and better mental well-being than non-garden owners. Indeed, the second study reproduced many of the 2020 findings. Garden owners and non-garden owners again differed on several sociodemographic factors. For instance, garden owners were more likely to have a higher income and less likely to live alone. Additionally, garden owners spent substantially more time in their garden than non-garden owners spent in public green spaces. We also replicated most findings regarding personality traits—namely, garden owners were more extroverted, more conscientious, less neurotic, and had more agency than non-garden owners. By pooling the data from 2020 to 2021, our hierarchical regression analyses supported the main conclusion from the original study, i.e., garden owners’ greater life satisfaction and better mental well-being were attributable to the differences between the groups in sociodemographic factors (e.g., higher income), time spent outside (e.g., longer hours), and personality traits (e.g., less neuroticism). Overall, we found lower levels of life satisfaction in 2021 than in 2020.