Green exercise as a potential pathway to promoting mental health in children and adolescents: a narrative review
- 1Department of General Education, Anglo-Chinese College
- 2College of Physical Education and Health Science, Guangxi Science & Technology Normal University
Abstract
Poor mental health during childhood and adolescence may adversely affect emotional regulation, social relationships, education, everyday functioning, and well-being into adulthood. Green exercise—defined as physical activity undertaken with direct exposure to natural environments—has attracted increasing attention as a potentially accessible and low stigma complement to established mental health care. This narrative review synthesized 12 English language empirical studies published since 2000 involving children and adolescents aged 18 years or younger engaging in green exercise. The findings were organized around four mechanism relevant themes: (1) psychological restoration and stress regulation; (2) mastery, autonomy, and person–activity fit; (3) activity engagement and substitution for sedentary behavior; and (4) social and contextual support. Across the evidence base, green exercise was associated with positive affect, life satisfaction, happiness, and self-esteem, as well as, in some contexts, lower levels of stress, anxiety, internalizing symptoms, or psychosomatic symptoms. However, findings varied according to activity type and structure, duration and frequency, participant preferences, sex, and social or environmental context. Brief experiments showed no consistent additional psychological benefit of greener exercise environments, whereas observational and multi day intervention studies suggested possible benefits from sustained participation, manageable challenge, restorative environmental engagement, and supportive contexts. Most evidence was observational or self-reported, nature exposure was inconsistently characterized, and proposed mechanisms were rarely tested prospectively. Cultural meanings of natural environments were also largely unexplored. Consequently, the optimal activity type, intensity, frequency, and environmental conditions remain uncertain. Overall, green exercise appears to be a promising but context dependent complement to child and adolescent mental health promotion rather than a universally effective intervention.
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BibTeX
@article{huang2026green,
title = {{Green exercise as a potential pathway to promoting mental health in children and adolescents: a narrative review}},
author = {Huihuang Huang and Xu Peng},
journal = {Frontiers in Psychiatry},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1948114},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1948114/full},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Green exercise as a potential pathway to promoting mental health in children and adolescents: a narrative review
AU - Huihuang Huang
AU - Xu Peng
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
JO - Frontiers in Psychiatry
DO - 10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1948114
UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1948114/full
AB - Poor mental health during childhood and adolescence may adversely affect emotional regulation, social relationships, education, everyday functioning, and well-being into adulthood. Green exercise—defined as physical activity undertaken with direct exposure to natural environments—has attracted increasing attention as a potentially accessible and low stigma complement to established mental health care. This narrative review synthesized 12 English language empirical studies published since 2000 involving children and adolescents aged 18 years or younger engaging in green exercise. The findings were organized around four mechanism relevant themes: (1) psychological restoration and stress regulation; (2) mastery, autonomy, and person–activity fit; (3) activity engagement and substitution for sedentary behavior; and (4) social and contextual support. Across the evidence base, green exercise was associated with positive affect, life satisfaction, happiness, and self-esteem, as well as, in some contexts, lower levels of stress, anxiety, internalizing symptoms, or psychosomatic symptoms. However, findings varied according to activity type and structure, duration and frequency, participant preferences, sex, and social or environmental context. Brief experiments showed no consistent additional psychological benefit of greener exercise environments, whereas observational and multi day intervention studies suggested possible benefits from sustained participation, manageable challenge, restorative environmental engagement, and supportive contexts. Most evidence was observational or self-reported, nature exposure was inconsistently characterized, and proposed mechanisms were rarely tested prospectively. Cultural meanings of natural environments were also largely unexplored. Consequently, the optimal activity type, intensity, frequency, and environmental conditions remain uncertain. Overall, green exercise appears to be a promising but context dependent complement to child and adolescent mental health promotion rather than a universally effective intervention.
SN - 1664-0640
ER -