Name/s:
Graham Ambrosea,
Kirti Dasb,
Yingling Fanb,
Yingling Fanb,
2020
Title of Publication:
Is gardening associated with greater happiness of urban residents? A multiactivity, dynamic assessment in the Twin-Cities region, USA
Edition:
Volume 198, June 2020, 103776
Where published:
Elsevier
Abstract:
As cities seek to become more livable and environment-friendly, activities like bicycling, walking, and urban gardening (household and community-gardening) are
receiving much attention. However, few field studies have measured well-being of urban gardening, particularly during household gardening. Our study develops
protocols to measure emotional well-being (EWB) reported during household gardening, comparing it with other leisure and day-to-day activities. We also explore
how gardening EWB varies across gardener type (vegetable vs ornamental), demographics, neighborhood type, and companionship during gardening. Using a
recently developed app-based Day Reconstruction Method, EWB was measured across 370 participants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Area, USA, wherein 118 (32%)
reported engaging in household gardening. Innovatively, five measures of EWB were computed for each participant for each activity type: average net affect, average
happiness, average meaningfulness, the frequency of experiencing peak positive emotions (happiness and meaningfulness). Among all three average EWB measures,
gardening is among the top 5 out of 15 activities assessed, and, is not statistically different from biking, walking and eating out. All four of these activities fall behind
other leisure/recreation activities, which ranks first. For frequency of experiencing peak happiness, only other leisure/recreation activities were statistically higher
than all the remaining (14) activities. Average net affect of gardening was significantly higher for vegetable gardeners (vs ornamental), for low-income gardeners (vs
higher income) and for women. Companionship while gardening at home, race/ethnicity and urban versus suburban location showed no significant difference.
Livability and equity considerations based on these EWB findings, and their impacts on urban food plans, are discussed.
Recent Publication:
Yes