Profiling adolescent participation in wildlife activities and its implications on mental health: evidence from the Young-HUNT study in Norway.

Abstract

Background: Adolescent mental health challenges are on the rise globally, and Norway is no exception. Wildlife activities (WAs) have been increasingly promoted as a potential measure to improve adolescent well-being. However, there is limited research on the extent of adolescent participation in these activities and its association with mental distress among Norwegian adolescents.

Aim: This study has a twofold aim: to explore the degree of adolescent participation in WAs and to examine the association between this participation and mental distress.

Methods: The study design was cross-sectional, using Young-HUNT data from Norway collected between 2017 and 2019. A total of 6,361 participants were included in the final sample. Participants were categorized based on their level of participation in WAs, and ordinal regression analysis was conducted to assess factors associated with their level of wildlife activity. Furthermore, multivariate linear regression analysis assessed the association between wildlife activity and mental distress.

Results: The majority of participants reported low levels (34.6%) or medium levels (53.2%) of engagement in WAs. Adjusted analyses showed that higher levels of participation in WAs were associated with a range of factors, particularly female sex, having both parents born in Norway, and maintaining a medium or high level of physical activity. A weak yet statistically significant relationship was identified between higher levels of wildlife activity and increased mental distress among the participants.

Conclusion: Various sociodemographic, lifestyle, and social factors influence the involvement in WAs. The observed weak but significant association between higher participation in WAs, and increased mental distress raises questions about the assumption that nature and WAs are universally beneficial for adolescent mental health. These results highlight the need for further research to explore the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. These findings also caution policymakers against making generalized claims about the mental health benefits of WAs without a deeper consideration of individual and contextual factors.