Exploring active ingredients of interventions to support human and nature flourishing

Nature-based programmes are associated with a range of mental health and wellbeing benefits, including reduced stress, improved attention, and better physical health. However, the underlying mechanisms driving these effects remain poorly understood, particularly among young people and underrepresented, marginalised groups. Furthermore, existing literature often reports outcomes without systematically investigating the ‘active ingredients’ that drive the change.

This project aims to develop nature-based approaches designed to identify key psychological, social, and environmental mechanisms that support both human and ecological flourishing. 

Analysing qualitative data from ten pilot E-Co-Flourishing walks, this study investigates how specific psychological, social, and ecological processes are activated during structured, co-produced nature-based activities. The E-Co-Flo Walk was iteratively developed with youth co-researchers and other underrepresented stakeholders, including adolescents and children on CAMHS waitlists and members of the NeurOx YPAG, to ensure inclusivity and contextual relevance. It was designed to identify candidate mechanisms that drive change across individual (e.g., curiosity), social (e.g., shared meaning-making), and ecological (e.g., nature relatedness) domains. Across pilots conducted in urban green spaces (October 2024–April 2025), 4-8 young people (aged 14–25) participated in one-hour guided walks integrating reflective, relational, and stewardship-based activities (e.g., shared storytelling, microscopy, litter picking, body mapping). Data generation included:

• Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMA) capturing in-situ affect and nature connectedness
• Pre- and post-walk psychometric questionnaires
• Observational field notes
• Audio-recorded focus groups examining perceived mechanisms and protocol refinement

While the primary paper, Youth as Epistemic Agents in Designing Nature-Based Protocols: Co-research for Ecological-Collective Flourishing, centres on youth epistemic agency in protocol development, the dataset additionally permits exploratory analysis of candidate E-Co-Flourishing mechanisms. Rigorous testing and validation of these mechanisms will require a future, adequately powered pilot study.

By identifying candidate mechanisms grounded in lived youth experience, this work forms Phase 1 of a longer-term research programme aimed at experimentally testing and refining mechanism-driven nature-based interventions that support both mental health and planetary wellbeing.