Psychology, Sociology and Education
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/14
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Item Ode to Joy: discussions on creating a chorus of jubilation in education(University of Aberdeen, 2025-09-16) Lord, Kat; Deazley, StephenIn this dialogue, Stephen, Artistic Director of a non-profit arts organisation, and Kat, a former primary school teacher and Senior Lecturer in Education at a Post-1992 university, reflect on the nature of joy in informal and formal education spaces as taken from their professional experiences. They explore how to create the conditions for joy in those spaces through song, discussing their collaboration to design an inclusive and sustainable singing programme, Sing for Wellbeing.Item “It was a road to understanding that I was always different”: Experiences of receiving a neurodivergent diagnosis at university(British Psychological Society, 2025) MacLean, Stephanie; Jones, SianThis study explored how receiving a neurodivergent diagnosis at university affects undergraduates’ academic experiences. We conducted semi-structured interviews with six Scottish students (diagnosed between ages 21–37 years). Reflexive Thematic Analysis revealed three key themes: Academic Struggle, Self-Discovery, and Support. Participants reported low wellbeing prior to diagnosis, with improvements afterwards. The diagnostic journey was closely linked to their self-understanding, academic challenges, and access to helpful support. Findings highlight that university environments often overlook neurodivergent needs, influencing students’ wellbeing and access to study. This research underscores the importance of inclusive academic practices and timely recognition of neurodivergent identities.Item Play for health and wellbeing: reinforcing and reinvigorating the evidence base(Taylor & Francis Group, 2025-07-04) Thompson, Tassy; McKendrick, John H.; Marko, StaceyIn this concluding paper to the theme edition on Play for Health and Wellbeing, we explain how the eight papers that comprise this collection have strengthened the evidence base and sharpened the thinking that supports the proposition that play enriches health and bolsters wellbeing. We also move beyond our evidence base to outline the challenges that lie ahead in exploring the play-health-wellbeing nexus, specifying priority actions that are empirical, conceptual and political.Item Conceptualising and evidencing the impact of play on health and wellbeing(Taylor & Francis Group, 2025-07-04) McKendrick, John H.; Thompson, Tassy; Marko, StaceyWhile it is understandable that those who promote and practice play believe in its inherent worth, and assert that it enriches health and bolsters wellbeing, we need more than belief and assertion. Those who promote the role of play in advancing social progressivism need to find effective ways to challenge detractors who dismiss the role of play and who rail against equality, inclusion and diversity. We observe that those who challenge progressivism often hanker for the lost play worlds of yesteryear, which is, paradoxically, also the approach that is taken by many progressives who advocate for the positive contribution of play to young people and children's health and wellbeing (e.g. canvassing for more nature-based play, less technology in play, and more social play). Also shared both by those for and against progressivism, is a drift into an unproductive echo chamber where we speak only to the converted and within which the commonsense of belief holds sway over the rationality of evidence. We argue that making the case that play enriches health and wellbeing must be the result of evidenced impact and persuasive explanations of the mechanisms that result in these outcomes.Item Nature connection and wellbeing in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis(Psych-Open, 2024) Barrable, Alexia; Friedman, Samantha; Tam, Kim-Pong; Papadatou-Pastou, MariettaNature connection (also referred to as nature connectedness, connectedness to nature connection to nature, or nature relatedness) describes a positive relationship between humans and the natural world, with various benefits for both nature and humans. The latter include a small but robust positive correlation of nature connection with various types of wellbeing and flourishing. However, this correlation has been investigated meta-analytically in adults only; no meta-analysis to-date has investigated the relationship between nature connection and wellbeing in children and adolescents. This is the aim of the present study. We undertook searches through four databases (Google Scholar, ERIC, PsycInfo and Scopus). The criteria were (i) the mean age of participants is below 18, with no restrictions on sex or ethnicity and that they were drawn from the general population; (ii) that there were at least one explicit, non-dichotomised measure for nature connection and one for wellbeing and (iii) that there were adequate data reported so that we could record or compute the correlation coefficient between the main variables. Our systematic review identified twelve studies (k = 12) that fulfilled the criteria and could be included in the meta-analysis. The total sample (n = 30,075) included children and adolescents aged four to 18. An overall moderate significant effect was found (r = .31, 95% CI = .22-.41) for the relationship between nature connection and wellbeing in children and adolescents, which is comparable but slightly higher than the effect found in previous meta-analyses focused on adults.Item Organised loneliness and its discontents(2023-12-22) Sagan, OliviaThis review paper offers a critique of the discourse of loneliness both in the popular and academic imagination. It questions the stance and approach of much loneliness research and the headlines that have been extracted from it. These position loneliness as an epidemic, framing it as a global public health problem, its aetiology and management located in the individual. The paper draws attention to overlooked alternative framings of loneliness as well as to the risks of maintaining our current levels of alarm regarding it. Finally, the work of Hannah Arendt is turned to, as part of a wider academic reappreciation of her work on loneliness. The paper ends by suggesting what can be learned by loneliness researchers in the medical humanities from such political analyses.Item In “nature’s embrace”: Exploring connection to nature as experienced through wild swimming.(NWS Journals, 2024-03-14) Barrable, Alexia; Wünsche, Tanya Uhnger; Touloumakos, AnnaBackground and aims: Previous research has highlighted the wellbeing benefits of engaging with blue spaces, including activities like wild swimming. In some of this previous research, the role of nature connection has been identified as a pathway towards wellbeing. This article aims to explore the human-nature relationship as experienced by those engaging in wild swimming and as facilitated by the act of wild swimming. Methods: This is a qualitative study using data collected from four hundred and ninety five wild swimmers through an open-ended questionnaire. Thematic analysis allowed us to explore the pathways through which participants connect to the natural world when wild swimming. Results: The experiences of immersion, a change of point of view, encounters with non-human nature, using the senses and the therapeutic effects of wild swimming are described by participants as supporting their nature connection. Pathways to nature connection through wild swimming included self-transcendence, shifts in perspective, empathy, awe and beauty and the feeling of being supported or cared for. Moreover, linking to those pathways, several dimensions of nature connection, as described by the participants, are identified. Finally, further links are made with pro-environmental behaviours, stemming from the aforementioned dimensions and pathways. Discussion: Wild swimming represents a unique way to connect to the natural world, and this research paper explores the pathways towards connection through the activity of wild swimming. This offers an extension of previous work on pathways, and can be used by practitioners, individuals and researchers looking at increasing connection to the natural world.Item Nature Connection in Early Childhood: A Quantitative Cross-Sectional Study(MDPI, 2020-01-02) Barrable, Alexia; Booth, DavidThere have been calls to reconnect children with nature, both for their own wellbeing, as well as for ecological sustainability. This has driven the growth of outdoor and nature-schools for all ages, but especially in the early childhood education sector. However, to date, there has not been a quantitative study that looks at whether these settings actually promote nature connection. This paper aims to examine the role of nature nurseries in the promotion of connection to nature, when compared to traditional nurseries. Data were collected on the nature connection, using the Connection to Nature Index for Parents of Preschool Children, of 216 children aged 1–8 years, 132 of whom attended nature nurseries while the rest attended traditional nurseries. Duration and frequency of attendance, sex, and parental nature connection were also reported. Statistical analyses were conducted for overall nature connection scores, individual dimension sub-scores and, for the children who attended nature nursery, against predictors. Results indicate that attending a nature nursery is associated with higher nature connection. Predictors for children’s connection to nature were parental nature connection, and total time spent in attendance of an outdoor nursery. This suggests a dose-response style relationship between attendance and nature connection. Implications for real-life applications are put forward and further research directions are explored.Item Disconnected: What Can We Learn from Individuals with Very Low Nature Connection?(MDPI, 2022-06-30) Barrable, Alexia; Booth, DavidWhile nature connection, which describes a positive relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world, has been a focus of numerous research studies in the last few decades, relatively little attention has been paid to nature disconnection. While the majority of the populations reported in most studies tend to be highly connected, there is a small percentage of those who feel they have no connection to the natural world. In this paper, we examine this novel construct of nature disconnection through secondary analysis of existing data from the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment survey (MENE) by Natural England. From our analysis of this disconnected population, we can see that they are more likely to be young (16–24 years old), male, not employed and living in rented accommodation. We also observe that they have lower levels of life satisfaction and pro-environmental behaviours. We go on to present an initial theoretical discussion as to the origins of disconnection and propose further research directions to tackle the under-theorisation of this construct.Item Caring spaces: Individual and social wellbeing in museum community engagement experiences(Taylor & Francis, 2022-03-09) Wallen, Linnea; Docherty-Hughes, John R.This paper explores the narratives of participants in museum community engagement projects in Scotland. Emphasis is placed on how taking part in museum community engagement projects can have a positive impact on the participants’ wellbeing. This qualitative study employed a dialogical research strategy, which involved careful and mindful choreography of the context and space within which interactions between researcher and participants emerged. Semi-structured walking interviews with five participants were conducted in the summer of 2019 at two museums in Glasgow: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and The Lighthouse. All participants had taken part in at least one museum community engagement project in Glasgow. Participants’ narratives reveal the positive impacts that “caring spaces” engendered through museum community engagement work have on overall feelings of wellbeing, achieved through deep processes of critical reflection, which resulted in enhanced self-esteem and confidence, and a heightened awareness of participants’ situated ontology in the context of broader issues of social inequality and identities. Museum community engagement projects, when practiced and experienced as “spaces of care,” have a critical role in enhancing individual and social wellbeing amongst participants themselves, particularly in terms of identifying long-term educational and self-worth legacies.