A nature-connectedness intervention for individuals with disordered eating

The prevalence of people with dysfunctional attitudes/behaviours toward eating (e.g. unhealthy preoccupation with food/body shape/body weight, fasting, purging) is high, especially in light of the pandemic. While existing therapies for disordered eating are effective (e.g. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), long waiting lists and cost of these services mean that individuals are not getting the timely support they need. Addressing disordered eating symptoms at a subclinical level is vital because, if individuals progress to full clinical eating disorders, there is a far poorer prognosis. It is therefore imperative that simple and cost-effective interventions are explored with this population, especially given the financial and capacity pressures associated with post-pandemic mental health provision.

Nature-connection as a social prescription

An example of an overlooked approach with this population are nature-based interventions/prescriptions. These involve facilitating an individual's connection to nature via five pathways: (1) Sensory contact with the natural world, (2) Finding an emotional bond with nature, (3) Taking time to appreciate the beauty of nature, (4) Thinking about the meaning and signs of nature, (5) Showing compassion and care for nature.

In a recent systematic review, Pritchard et al. (2020) established the link between nature connectedness and increased mental wellbeing. Specifically in relation to an eating disordered population, a nature-connectedness intervention promoted experiences through which individuals developed greater respect for their bodies. Furthermore, qualitative studies and small-scale pilot work have suggested everyday engagement with nature helps eating disorder recovery.

 'Three good things in nature' is a nature-connectedness intervention that asks people to notedown three good things they've noticed in nature each day for a week and has delivered clinically significant and sustained improvements in mental health. Interestingly, the benefits of the intervention are higher in those with lower levels of nature connectedness (i.e. young adults). Furthermore, women are more likely to be prescribed and participate in nature engagement programmes. Recently, it has been found that when combined with 30-minute nature walks, the 'Three good things in nature' intervention improved symptoms among people with clinically diagnosed anxiety and depression. This is notable as anxiety and depression play an integral facilitatory role in the development and maintenance of disordered eating. Therefore, it is plausible that disordered eating populations who experience an improvement to their mental health via a nature-connectedness intervention, may in turn benefit from reduced eating psychopathology.

University of Derby funded PhD project

Given the previous success with a clinical population, links between nature connectedness and body image, and high prevalence of low nature connectedness in young adults, an important next step for this line of research is to explore the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of a nature-connectedness intervention in people with disordered eating. I am delighted to share that this project has received funding for a PhD studentship from the University of Derby with myself and Professor Miles Richardson on the supervisory package.

The project has the following research objectives:

• To develop, and assess the feasibility and acceptability of a nature- connectedness intervention for individuals living with disordered eating.
• To examine the short and long-term effectiveness of a nature- connectedness intervention for improving mental health and reducing eating psychopathology.
• To explore factors that affect the success of the intervention (e.g. gender, age, pre-intervention nature-connectedness).

 

I look forward to providing a project progress update at our next BPS Midlands conference event in December!

Dr Charlotte Scott

Lecturer in Psychology