Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 59 (2021) 127034
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Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ufug
Are Forest healing programs useful in promoting children’s emotional
welfare? The Interpersonal relationships of children in foster care
Jaeyoon Hong a, Sujin Park a,b,*, Miyeong An c
a Forest Welfare Division, Forest Policy and Economics Department, National Institute of Forest Science, Seoul, 02455, Republic of Korea
b Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Korea
c National Center for Forest Therapy, Korea Forest Welfare Institute, Yeongju, 36043, Republic of Korea
ARTICLE INFO
Handling Editor: Wendy Chen
Keywords:
Child welfare
Forest healing
Forest health
Interpersonal relationship skills
ABSTRACT
Forest healing programs are conducted for children in foster care, as their potentially turbulent environments
may hinder development—particularly that of healthy interpersonal relationship skills. This study analyzed the
impacts of forest healing programs on children’s psychological health. These programs include activities that
utilize a variety of natural components including aroma, landscape, and others to raise the immunity of the
human body and to promote health. The program was run 72 times from 2015 to 2018 at National Forest
Therapy sites. Self-reported surveys were administered before and after the program, and were used to determine
the participants’ interpersonal relationship skills and analyze the overall effectiveness of the program. The
highest possible score on the survey was 50, indicating healthy interpersonal relationships. The results show a
statistically significant overall increase of 1.77 points on average from 2015 to 2018. This study finds that forest
healing programs can function as social promotion programs that utilize the forest’s beneficial environment and
the city’s abundant resources, and that they represent an effective step toward improving the well-being of
children in urban areas.
1. Introduction
1.1. Background
Modern society is highly industrialized, and advancements in tech
nology have enhanced both the standards and conveniences of living.
These developments are especially apparent in urban areas, which are
densely populated as a result. The Korean National Statistical Office’s
data from 2018 indicate that major metropolitan cities account for
32.551 million out of a total 51.607 million Koreans, meaning 63.1% of
the total population is concentrated in urban areas.
Urban areas are characterized by rapidly changing social structures
and little to no sense of community, both of which may generate high
levels of stress (Adli, 2011; Guite et al., 2006; Park, 2016)). Conversely,
forests and plants have the opposite effect, and may promote emotional
fulfilment. During visits to forests, patients with exhaustion disorder
wereput at ease, reported feeling psychological stability, were prompted
to reflect on their lives, and described their experience as restorative
(Sonntag-O¨ stro¨m et al., 2015). Being near urban green spaces has pos
itive effects on one’s mental health (Nutsford et al., 2013); exposure to
green spaces has shown a biologically (salivary cortisol) significant
negative correlation between stress and green spaces (Ward Thompson
et al., 2012). Green spaces are potent psychological buffers against the
negative health impact of stressful life events (Van den Berg et al.,
2010). Middle school students with an inability to adapt to school
showed a reduction in stress, reactive characteristics, and disruptive
behavior after participating in school violence prevention programs
with applied forest therapy (Shin, 2013). Walking in forests may be
physiologically and psychologically relaxing for young women (Song
et al., 2019). Through studies on the effects of therapy-intended activ
ities centered on forest factors (trees, plants, aromas, landscape), forest
activities have been verified to have positive effects such as emotional
and physiological restoration and promotion of emotional stability
(Jeong, 2012; Kim et al., 2019; Lee, 2013; Stigsdotter et al., 2017; White
et al., 2013). Studies on the value of green space for children have
determined that access to urban green spaces is tied to enhanced
emotional happiness (Flouri et al., 2014), and these spaces may play a
positive role in allowing children and adolescents the opportunities to
form friendships (Seeland et al., 2009).
The Korean Forest Service has defined and legalized forest therapy as
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: nadapacem@korea.kr (J. Hong), snowshoe@korea.kr (S. Park), anmi@fowi.or.kr (M. An).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127034
Received 1 April 2020; Received in revised form 29 December 2020; Accepted 3 February 2021
Available online 10 February 2021
1618-8667/© 2021 The Authors.
Published by Elsevier GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
J. Hong et al.
“an activity that utilizes a variety of natural components including
aroma, landscape, and more to raise the immunity of the human body
and to promote health” (Korea Ministry of Government Legislation,
2019a,2019b) (Clause 4 Article 2) and has been pursuing it at a policy
level. The 6th Forest Basic Plan (2018) called for expanding forest
therapy into a cycle that can continuously contribute to the restoration
and promotion of participants’ health. Therapy facilities, program
management, and research teams have consistently endeavored to better
secure empirical evidence of the effectiveness of forest therapy. Studies
on the benefits of forest therapy and urban green spaces are ongoing,
and their findings continue to be implemented.
1.2. Characteristics of children in foster care
Foster care is a term defined by the Child Welfare Act as applying to a
child “if his/her guardian is inadequate for nurturing the child or has no
ability to nurture the child like when the child has no guardian, is away
from the guardian, or is abused by the guardian.” (Korea Ministry of
Government Legislation, 2019a,2019b) (Clause 4 Article 3). The main
causes for children being in foster care, enumerated by frequency of
occurrence, are abuse, parents’ divorce, having a single parent, and
being an illegitimate child (Table 1). Abuse accounts for the highest
percentage of children being placed in foster care, and these children
will often continue to face high levels of stress upon finding themselves
in unfamiliar environments, even if these new environments are safe.
The importance of abuse prevention and the emotional protection of
children in foster care cannot be overstated.
Adolescent children in foster care are already in a physically and
psychologically turbulent period of their lives. They find themselves
lacking coping skills or the social support necessary to meet the re
quirements of social situations, and therefore, have a higher risk of
becoming maladjusted (Nho et al., 2008). Moreover, environments that
make it difficult to form stable attachments are known to generate a
sense of deprivation, alienation, and low self-esteem, leading to per
sonal, social, and emotional identity crises and a higher risk of experi
encing anxiety and a sense of social isolation (Kim, 2014). Therefore,
children in foster care have an arduous time acquiring sociality, and as
they are so often socially withdrawn, it is difficult for them to form re
lationships (Kim, 2014). As substitutes for loving relationships with
parents (which crucially affect children’s personality formation), re
lationships with nursing assistants at children’s shelters are significant
to the maturation of children in foster care. However, due to nursing
assistants’ high turnover rate, children are vulnerable to developing
childhood attachment to inconsistent figures, resulting in continued
social isolation. These children tend to lack sociality, a sense of
accomplishment, and interpersonal relationship skills. Therefore, in
their social lives as adults, they are likely to be easily influenced by
others. For example, they will likely have a negative tendency toward
social adaptation, just as they try to rely on others or are unable to adapt
to work (Lee, 2010).
1.3. Adolescent interpersonal relationships and their importance
Interpersonal relationships consist of social interactions between an
individual and the people in their environment. Adolescents’ interper
sonal relationships are largely divided among the most prominent peo
ple around them, such as parents (or primary caregivers), teachers, and
friends (Park and Bae, 2012). In adolescence, interpersonal relationships
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 59 (2021) 127034
with friends significantly impact growth because, beyond the family
zone, adolescents place a high value on relationships with people closer
to their age, and these peers often become more important than their
families and teachers as they grow older (Shin, 2014). Adolescents’
experience with interpersonal relationships may affect their adaptive
ness to reality, and may even influence their future interpersonal re
lationships. Primary caregivers, friends, and teachers exert considerable
influence on an adolescent’s personality formation and socialization,
and teachers and friends exert special influence on children, as they
spend more time at school than at home (Lee, 2016). Schools help ad
olescents acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for socialization,
thus adapting well to schooling is a crucial task of adolescence (Choi,
2004). It is important for adolescents to form healthy relationships, as
what is learned and experienced in these young relationships affects
character development, social relationships, and learning—all of which
enable adolescents to grow into healthy adults (Lee and Oak, 2012). The
adolescent development of self-control has been noted to result in
especially high satisfaction and low conflict levels in adult relationships.
Therefore, the development of interpersonal relationship skills in
adolescence has long-term consequences for sociality, as these skills
provide a foundation for better and more intimate adult relationships
(Allemand et al., 2019).
1.3.1. Study purpose
Out of the 280 children’s shelters nationwide, 157 are located in
major cities like Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, and Daejeon, according
to data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2018. Of the 12,789
children living in foster shelters, 7458 (58.3%) inhabit these cities, and
this percentage increases when small and medium-sized cities are
included in a wider “urban” category. As these children are concentrated
within cities they are exposed to the stress of urban environments.
Children in foster care, when compared to children living with family,
show a greater risk of maladjustment due to the high levels of stress
caused by environmental conflicts, such as broken families (Nho et al.,
2008). These children most often receive material-oriented support;
however, there is a need to provide support activities that bolster
emotional and social stabilization (Lee et al., 2017).
This study carried out forest therapy programs, particularly for
children in foster care, who, compared to other children, are more likely
to experience adaptive difficulties due to insufficient role models from
whom to learn socialization and interpersonal relationship skills (Jung,
2009; Wallerstein and Lewis, 2004). These programs were run by the
social contribution activities of the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo
Foundation, and to maintain the service and investigate potential im
provements to child welfare policy, this study was conducted alongside
the activities of the foundation. These programs are expected to result in
positive changes in participants’ interpersonal relationships and rela
tionship skills, even if carried out in urban areas. However, based on
studies that researched the sociality of adolescents consistently exposed
to green areas, it is expected that forest areas will exert more positive
effects on interpersonal relationships (Kim and Kim, 2017). Forest
healing programs also had positive effects on interpersonal relationships
among youth activity competencies such as the self, accomplishment
motives, problem-solving, conflict regulation, intrapersonal relation
ship, leadership, citizenship, and physique (Oh et al., 2016a). Students
from schools that provided them with green spaces showed more in
terest in interpersonal relationships and schooling (Waliczek et al.,
2001), and greater overall well-being (Ma et al., 2019). Thus, forest
Table 1
Causes for the placement of children into foster care in 2018 (Statistics Korea, 2019).
Children in
Foster Care
Abandonment
Single parents,
illegitimate
children
Missing
child
Delinquency,
runaway,
vagrancies
Abuse
3918
230
623
18
231
1415
Parental poverty,
unemployment
198
Parental
death
284
Parental
illness
92
Parents’
divorce and
more
737
Others
90
2
J. Hong et al.
healing programs were organized specifically for children in foster care
by the instructors who run the National Therapy Forests program and
the National Center for Forest Therapy. Moreover, changes in the
interpersonal relationships of participants pre and post forest healing
programs have been analyzed in the interest of utilizing forests to
guarantee the welfare of children in foster care.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Participants
The participants of this study were those children in foster care who
had participated in “The healing classes in a forest to search for my
dream” run by the National Therapy Forests and National Center for
Forest Therapy. These classes were held 38 times from February 2015 to
October 2016, 17 times from February 2017 to October 2017, and
another 17 times from February 2018 to October 2018. Some partici
pants were enrolled in more than 1 program session over this time
period (The same children could take part more than once.). The par
ticipants consisted of 3992 children who were middle-school aged or
older, as they were considered able to complete self-reported surveys.
All study participants and their foster care providers provided informed
consent, and the study’s design was approved by the appropriate ethics
review board (WKIRB-201705-BM-027).Socio-demographic character
istics of the participants indicated that female participation was slightly
higher at 52.3%, and that participants mainly resided in childcare fa
cilities (58.3%), treatment institutions (13.1%), and group homes
(11.7%) (Table 2).
2.2. Forest healing programs and target sites for children in foster care
2.2.1. Forest healing programs for children in foster care
Each run of the forest healing program lasted for 2 nights and 3 days,
and was composed of age-inclusive and age-specific activities, such as
general forest games, aromatherapy sessions, art and music workshops,
forest therapy sessions, and lectures. These activities were organized
slightly differently between different runs of the program, depending on
the characteristics and facilities of each target site. However, the pro
grams had common factors, such as forest therapy activities, which
made heavy use of the forest environment. All programs included lec
tures for enhancing self-sufficiency via means tailored specifically to the
participants (Table 3, Fig. 1). The potential effects of meeting other
children from similar environments were considered when organizing
Table 2
Socio-demographic characteristics of study subjects.
Classification
Categories
Frequency
(Persons)
Gender
Total
Grade
Total
Residential
institutions
Total
Male
Female
Middle school
High school
Childcare facilities
Vocational training
facilities
Treatment institutions
Self-sufficiency support
facilities
Temporary care
facilities
Complex facilities
Group homes
Foster homes
Surrogate(relatives)
foster homes
1905
2087
3992
2034
1312
3346
1797
7
403
82
79
132
362
134
86
3085
Percentage
(%)
47.7
52.3
100
60.8
39.2
100
58.3
0.2
13.1
2.7
2.6
4.3
11.7
4.3
2.8
100
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 59 (2021) 127034
Table 3
Target-site specific activities for children in the program.
Place of
Operation
Activity
Purpose
Contents
Walking meditation
through landscape
Recharge in the
forest.
Relaxation, stress
reduction
therapy, chilling in a
hammock, mindful
breathing
meditation, foot
baths & spas
Rejuvenate with
fragrances.
Emotional stability,
enhanced immunity,
inspiration for a sense
of accomplishment and
independence
Drawing a mandala,
making aroma oil,
aroma candle, and
oil diffusers
Stretching
A
Exercise
underwater.
Relaxation, improved
cardiopulmonary
function
underwater, walking
in the water, having
a bathing pool
experience
Find relief via
therapy
machines in the
forest.
Muscle fatigue relief,
promoting blood
circulation
Using dry saunas,
sound wave therapy
equipment, aqua
therapy equipment
Forest walking, using
Walk in the
Relaxation, enhanced
color therapy,
woods.
sociality
walking barefoot
along a sensory path
Get motivated by
lectures.
Strengthened
independence
competence
Attending mentor’s
lectures on “being
independent”
Forest stretching/
gymnastics,
Relieve stress
with forest
healing.
Relaxation, stress
reduction
threaded net, forest
trail walking,
abdominal
breathing, aroma
massage
Play dominoes in
the forest.
Advocating harmony
and the sense of
intimacy
Cooperation and
competition between
groups through
playing dominoes
Quiz games, drawing
B
Fulfill a group
mission in the
woods.
Enhanced spirit of
teamwork
natural resources,
team building games
in the woods by
completing
therapeutic tasks
Promoting
friendship and
Make a wooden Learning time
learning how to
clock.
management
manage time
through making
clocks
Create a
gratitude journal
with natural
objects.
Increased positive
thinking, friendship
promotion
Journaling your way
into happiness,
Expressing your
gratitude
Get motivated by
lectures.
Same as A
Walk along
forest trails.
Enhanced positive
thoughts
Forest trail walking,
making floral
garlands
Observe the
Strengthened
Night walking, star
night sky above independence
observation,
the forest.
competence
meditation
Make your own Enhanced immunity,
Making an aroma oil
C
fragrance in the
forest.
stress reduction,
sensitivity stimulation
handkerchief, feeling
the fragrance
Enhanced spirit of
Learning rope
Rope activities.
teamwork and self-
knotting rules,
esteem
stretching
Make your own
dreamcatcher.
Relaxation and stability
Making
dreamcatchers
Build up your
dream forest.
(continued on next page)
3
J. Hong et al.
Table 3 (continued )
Place of
Operation
Activity
Get motivated by
lectures.
Purpose
Promotion of self-
esteem, emotional
stability
Same as A
Between us and
tree
Enhanced sociality and
self-esteem,
establishment of
identity
Log field day.
Enhanced spirit of
teamwork and unity
D
Forest explorers.
Enhanced nature
affinity
Wiggling
fragrance.
Inspiration for a sense
of accomplishment
Five Senses
BINGO.
Get motivated by
lectures.
Enhanced nature
communication ability
using five senses
Same as A
Contents
Forest trail walking,
DIY glass bottle
crafts
Learn how to respect
and appreciate
differences between
people through
forest healing
program
Making stepping-
stones, kudzu ball
bowling, flipping
acorns
Forest exploring,
quiz games
DIY pressed flowers
with a few sculptural
leaves from the
forest
Using natural
objects, play BINGO
in the forest
the programs. Thus, there were opportunities for children from diffuse
communities with much in common to come together, socialize, and
form friendships.
2.2.2. Target sites
The programs were carried out at 4 sites within the National Center
for Forest Activities (Target Sites A, B, C, and D) (Figs. 2a and 2b). The
center provided an auditorium and lecture halls, experience rooms,
outdoor activity facilities, and living accommodations, as well as ther
apy courses, forest experience trails, and forest exploration courses.
Instructors who developed and operated the programs were stationed at
each site to provide therapy services to participants. Target Site A is
located over Gyeongbuk Yeongju and Yecheon, occupying an area of
about 2,889 ha. The trees in the area are predominantly oak, nut pine,
and larch. There are nine major forest trails; their cumulative length is
45.5 km. These trails feature a barrier-free deck road for the elderly and
people with disabilities, as well as gardens, valleys, and barefoot-
gardens. Target Site B is located in Hoengseong, Gangwon-do, and oc
cupies an area of about 712 ha. The trees in the area are predominantly
oak, larch, nut pine, and, most notably, Norway spruce. Six major forest
trails run through the site, and their total length is about 22 km. Target
Site C is located in Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do, and occupies an area
of about 503 ha. The trees in the area are predominantly cypress and
Japanese cedar. There are six forest trails with a total length of 11.2 km.
Target Site D is located in Chilgok, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and occupies an
area of about 73 ha. The trees in the area are predominantly oak. There
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 59 (2021) 127034
are four major forest trails that have a total length of about 2.86 km, all
of which feature a barrier-free deck road.
2.2.3. Measurements
This study followed a single-group pretest-posttest design as part of
the overarching quasi-experimental design. This was because it was not
possible to select experimental and control groups equally through
random assignment since it was difficult to exclude participants from the
program, which was supported by inclusive corporate social re
sponsibility organizations. Moreover, the number of participants in the
forest healing programs was very large. The assessment of change in the
children’s interpersonal relationships consisted of self-reported partici
pation surveys, administered before and after the program to those
participants who were middle-school aged or older. Data for the pre-
program assessment were collected using surveys sent to each foster
institution, which the participants completed by themselves after their
participation in the program was confirmed. The post-program assess
ment was carried out among the same participants following the last
program activity. To identify the changes that participants experienced
during the program, the survey gave them an anonymous identification
number (Fig. 3).
2.2.4. Measures for interpersonal relationships
To confirm changes in the interpersonal relationship skills of the
participants, the Relationship Change Scale (RCS)—developed by
Schelin and Guerney (1971), adapted by Seon Mo Moon (1980), and
modified by Suk Kyun Jeon (Jeon, 1994) and Jinsun Lee (Lee, 2010),
was used. The Cronbach’s α value for the scale was 0.928 in this study.
The survey consists of 10 questions on friendliness, sensitivity, under
standability, credibility, openness, and communication. It is graded on a
five-point Likert scale, having response options from “strongly disagree
(1 point)” to “strongly agree (5 points),” and therefore, the highest total
score is 50. The test was designed so that higher scores would indicate
better interpersonal relationship skills. RCS has been used as a mea
surement tool in various studies to identify interpersonal changes: for
institutionalized adolescents who participated in the Independence
program (Lee, 2010), for university students who participated in a group
art therapy program(Hong and Yoo, 2018) and expression training on
emotional awareness(Park and Park, 2014), and high school students
with intellectual disabilities who participated in a dating skill program
(Chang and Kim, 2011), etc.
2.2.5. Data analysis
The data from the survey were systemically processed and analyzed
using SPSS v.20. Frequency analysis was used to analyze the partici
pants’ socio-demographic characteristics. Paired t-tests were used to
compare pre- and post-program participation. The formula for a paired t-
test is T = means1(√d−i̅f̅fm)̅ ean2. Analysis of covariance(ANCOVA) was used to
(n)
determine whether socio-demographic characteristics and frequency of
participation affected the results of the interpersonal measurement. This
model assumes that the dependent variable y is influenced by treatment i
and is at the same time linear with covariate χ. The ANCOVA model is
Fig. 1. Photos of the program activities.
4
J. Hong et al.
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 59 (2021) 127034
Fig. 2. a Program sites A through D. b Several views of the operation sites: The forest path of Site C; The deck path from Site A; The panorama of Site B.
Fig. 3. Method used to collate measurements.
y ij = μ + αi + β χij + εij. In this equation, αi is the treatment impact, μ is
the population mean, and εij is the assumption of the error term. Inde
pendent samples t-tests were used for the comparisons of change by
frequency of participation and questions by topic. The formula is t =
√(X̅(̅1̅̅̅−̅̅̅X̅̅2̅)̅̅)̅̅̅. The statistical significance was set at **p < .05.
s21
n1
+ns222
3. Results
Forest healing programs lasting 2 nights and 3 days were conducted
at the National Center for Forest Therapy for four years. The participants
were children in foster care. Their interpersonal relationship skills were
assessed against the parameters of friendliness, sensitivity, under
standability, credibility, openness, and communication. Table 4 shows
the changes in the scores of the participants each year and determines
whether they qualify as having undergone statistically significant
change. The results demonstrate that the forest healing programs can be
considered to have a positive impacts on interpersonal relationships of
children in foster care.
In 2017 and 2018, when the forest healing programs had been
implemented for three or four years the level of change in a participant’s
5
J. Hong et al.
Table 4
Survey topics and contents.
Question topics
Question
number
Friendliness
1
6
Sensitivity
2
3
Understandability 4
10
Credibility
5
7
Openness
9
Communication
8
Question contents
I have a good relationship with others.
I don’t feel distant from others.
I know well what others hope and what they
want to do.
It is easy to communicate with others.
It is not difficult to understand what others
are feeling.
I understand what to do with interpersonal
relations in the future.
I tend to trust others.
I am confident in my interpersonal
relationships.
I am very likely to share my interest with
others.
I don’t have trouble communicating with
others.
interpersonal relationships was determined by accounting for the fre
quency of their participation in the surveys (whether or not the partic
ipants took part in the previous year). After considering this, the data
showed that, in 2017, one-time participants gained a 2.97 point increase
from 36.36–39.33, while twice-or-more participants gained a statisti
cally significant 3.5 point increase from 37.96 to 41.46. In 2018, one-
time participants gained a 2.69 point increase from 36.85 to 39.54,
while twice-or-more participants scored a statistically significant 3.41
point increase from 37.83 to 41.24. These data indicate that partici
pating twice or more in the program will yield significantly greater re
sults than participating only once (Tables 5 and 6).
To determine whether socio-demographic characteristics(gender,
grade, and residential institutions) and frequency of participation (1
time and 2 or more times) impact change in interpersonal relationships,
we analyzed whether there were differences between pre-and post-
change depending on gender, grade, residential institutions, and fre
quency of participation. First of all, to find out the equality of regression
slope, the analysis of the interaction between gender and pre-results,
grade and pre-results, and residential institutions and pre-results,
showed that the significant probability was **p < 0.117 for gender,
**p < 0.110 for grade, and **p < 0.108 for residential institutions
(Table 7). However, the frequency of participation was **p < 0.035,
indicating that the slope was not the same. Accordingly, the ANCOVA
showed that the significant probability was **p < 0.470, grade was
**p < 0.100, and **p < 0.057 for residential institutions, therefore,
there was no difference between gender, grade, and residential in
stitutions. However, the significance of participation frequency was
**p < 0.024, which differed according to the frequency of participation
(Table 8).
Thus, the degree of the program’s impact on the results of the
Table 5
Change in the degree of interpersonal relationship skills of children in foster care
by participation year (**p < .05).
Classification
N (Statistically
Mean Standard
t
significant
deviation
figure)
p-
value
2015
2016
2017
2018
Total
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
1247
1160
742
772
3950
34.71 7.73
35.64 8.85
35.37 7.81
36.97 8.63
36.91 7.44
39.35 8.01
37.27 7.66
40.27 8.25
35.76 7.77
37.53 8.77
− 4.43
.000**
− 7.07
.000**
− 8.125 .000**
− 10.681 .000**
− 14.121 .000**
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 59 (2021) 127034
interpersonal relationship skills survey was nominally quantified to
identify whether participants in 2017 and 2018 displayed a positive
difference regarding the frequency of their participation. The topics and
questions are presented in Table 4. Analysis of the results indicated that
participants in 2017 had a significant positive difference in some of the
questions on “understandability” and “openness.” Participants in 2018
have a significant positive difference in “sensitivity” and “credibility,”
and also in some of the questions on “understandability” and “open
ness.” Participants in both the years showed a significant positive dif
ference in “understandability,” with regard to the question “It is easy to
communicate with others,” and in “openness,” with regard to the
question “I am very likely to share my interest with others.”
4. Discussion
The forest healing programs, implemented annually from 2015 to
2018, led to a significant enhancement of the interpersonal relationship
skills of their participants. However, it was difficult to control all the
conditions affecting the operation, such as the forest environments
(Hong and Lee, 2018a), weather conditions (Lim et al., 2014), and in
structors (Hong and Lee, 2018b; Min, 2013). Therefore, differences in
the impact of the program may emerge, depending on the site used and
the duration of the individuals’ participation. However, on-site in
structors developed and operated all of the program’s activities based on
forest therapy within a forest environment, so there was a high standard
of dedication and care present in all iterations of the program. Since
there were at least 700 participants per year and a total of 3921 par
ticipants over four years and continuously high participation, it can be
seen that there were significantly positive results for the interpersonal
relationship skills of the participants after they completed the programs.
In addition to this study’s research, horticultural therapy programs
(caring for plants, watching the process of their growth, experiencing
the work of gardening) have also studied the benefits of nature and
green spaces, and have helped persons with Schizophrenia improve their
communication abilities, especially to form relationships and share their
emotions with others (Jeong et al., 2004). The social competence of
many adolescents has improved through participation in forest healing
programs, which utilize the forest’s environment (foliage, air, water,
sunlight, etc.) in therapy while considering adolescents’ interpersonal
capabilities (Oh et al., 2016a). Afterschool forest healing programs were
also found to have positive effects on children, especially with regards to
the formation of their interpersonal relationships (Jang and Koo, 2017).
This study found that programs based on forest therapy that make use of
various natural elements can exert a positive impact on interpersonal
relationship skills.
It was also found that participation in nature healing programs
significantly increases the children’s interpersonal relationship skills in
adolescence. Moreover, it was found that participating more than twice
results in an even more significant increase in interpersonal relationship
skills than one-time participation. The results of this study are consistent
with those of past studies: that a higher frequency of participation in
cultural activities enhances adolescents’ self-efficacy (Kim et al., 2011),
that a higher frequency of participation in integrated pungmul (Korean
traditional percussion music) programs narrows the social distance be
tween students with and without disabilities (Choi, 2003), and that a
positive correlation exists between college life adaptability and the
frequency of participation in recreational sports activities (Jeong, 2005).
The differences in survey results between those attending forest healing
programs for the first time and those who had already attended twice or
more were striking. The results from 2018 revealed that participating
multiple times was often reflected in statistically significant improve
ments in the “sensitivity” and “credibility” categories of the survey. In
2017 and 2018, new and old participants both showed significant
improvement in the categories of “understandability” and “openness.”
(However, those who had participated more than twice still showed
significantly greater improvement than those who were participating for
6
J. Hong et al.
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 59 (2021) 127034
Table 6
Change in the interpersonal relationships of children in foster care as determined by frequency of participation in forest healing programs in 2017 and 2018
(**p < .05).
Classification
N (Statistically significant figure)
Mean
Standard deviation
T
p-value
2017
Frequency of participation (1 time)
Frequency of participation (2 or more times)
Before
After
Before
After
346
175
2018
Frequency of participation (1 time)
Frequency of participation (2 or more times)
Before
After
Before
After
444
310
36.36
7.51
39.33
8.80
37.96
7.97
41.46
8.03
36.86
7.62
39.54
8.35
37.83
7.54
41.24
7.88
− 6.992
− 5.258
− 7.619
− 7.517
.000**
.000**
.000**
.000**
Table 7
Results of analysis the interaction effects of socio-demographic characteristics
and frequency of participation and pre changes in interpersonal relationships
changes to check equality of regression slope. (**p < .05).
Sum of
squares
df Mean
F
p-
square
value
Gender*pre
Grade*pre
Residential institutions*
pre
Frequency of
participation* pre
221.267
131.474
675.470
212.655
2 110.633
1 131.474
8 84.434
1 212.655
2.146
2.555
1.643
.117
.110
.108
4.312 .038**
the first time.) It can be inferred from the topics that showed the most
overall improvements in 2017 and 2018 (Table 9) that participating in
forest healing programs can teach one how to share their interests with
others, which can lead to opportunities to learn how to communicate
more openly. These programs provide opportunities for children in
foster care to experience healthy relationships with nature, instructors,
and children with similar backgrounds, and can teach them crucial so
cial skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. The programs
may contribute to a child’s welfare by bolstering their emotional and
social stability, because forest environments have been repeatedly
observed to positively affect emotional and psychological stability (Lee
et al., 2019; Oh et al., 2016b; Reeve et al., 2017; Song et al., 2018). This
study has confirmed that forest healing programs exert a positive impact
on the interpersonal relationship skills of children in foster care.
Therefore, this study has significance in that it identifies the possibilities
of forest therapy programs as alternatives to emotional and social sta
bilization activities in institutions, which are currently heavily biased
towards material benefits. This study is meaningful in that it provides
opportunities for the development and advancement of forest healing
programs by verifying the value of these programs for specific subjects.
However, this study had several limitations. First, the program
assessment was carried out with a group pretest-posttest without a
matched control. As this study aimed to not only identify the impact of
the forest healing program on interpersonal relationship skills of chil
dren in foster care, but also confirm the potential for utilizing programs
at the child welfare level, no participants were excluded from the pro
gram. The number of participants in the forest healing programs was
large, thus making it difficult to recruit a corresponding comparison
group. Because the effects of the program could not be evaluated by
setting a control group, they were measured pretest-posttest at a large
scale every year. A control group will be needed in the future, when
follow-up studies are conducted to examine the effects of environments
(forests, cities) on children in foster care. Second, the learning effect of
exposing repeat participants to identical assessments has not been
excluded. The percentage of subjects who participated in the program
more than once was about 40% in 2018. Because participants went
through the same programs and surveys, there is a high possibility of a
learning effect affecting results. However, since the interpersonal rela
tionship skills of the repeat participants were more positive than those of
participants attending the program for the first time, the impact of the
program on interpersonal relationship skills may still be considered very
positive. Therefore, further research on the effects of re-participation in
the program is necessary. Third, the post-program surveys were
administered by the same instructors who had conducted the program.
This may have led to the possibility that the participants gave socially
desirable responses rather than being totally frank and honest in eval
uating the program. The program operated on a large scale. The diffi
culties involved in preparing a completely independent space for a large
number of participants and hiring new staff made the program’s in
structors the most effective vector for administering the survey. How
ever, the results of this study should be able to be reliably replicated at a
smaller scale. Fourth, there is a need to conduct studies on the sustain
ability of the effects of forest healing programs when their crucial
environment, the forest, is inaccessible in the children’s day-to-day
Table 8
Results of analysis if there are different changes in interpersonal relationships depending on gender, grade, residential institutions, and frequency of participation.
(**p < .05).
Sum of squares
df
Mean square
F
p-value
Gender
Grade
Residential Institutions
Frequency of participation
Before
Gender
Error
Total
Before
Gender
Error
Total
Before
Gender
Error
Total
Before
Gender
Error
Total
84874.061
183.145
172628.074
4944986.000
85382.281
139.063
172072.369
4935575.000
78590.341
779.370
158406.253
4562157.000
16694.273
242.794
44742.886
1528731.000
1
4
3346
3352
1
1
3343
3346
1
8
3077
3087
1
1
904
907
84874.061
45.786
51.592
85382.281
139.063
51.472
78590.341
97.421
51.481
16694.273
242.794
49.494
1645.089
.887
1658.796
2.702
1526.597
1.892
337.297
4.905
.000**
.470
.000**
.100
.000**
.057
.000**
.027**
7
J. Hong et al.
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 59 (2021) 127034
Table 9
Comparison of question results enumerated by topic and the frequency of participation in the forest healing programs in 2017 and 2018 (**p < .05).
Classification
Question topics
Question number
Year of participation
N (Statistically significant figure)
T
1
Friendliness
6
Sensitivity
2
3
Understandability
4
10
Credibility
5
7
Openness
9
Communication
8
2017
2018
2017
2018
2017
2018
2017
2018
2017
2018
2017
2018
2017
2018
2017
2018
2017
2018
2017
2018
Before
521
After
521
Before
754
After
754
Before
521
After
521
Before
754
After
754
Before
521
After
521
Before
754
After
754
Before
521
After
521
Before
754
After
754
Before
521
After
521
Before
754
After
754
Before
521
After
521
Before
754
After
754
Before
521
After
521
Before
754
After
754
Before
521
After
521
Before
754
After
754
Before
521
After
521
Before
754
After
754
Before
521
After
521
Before
754
After
754
1.875
.649
.929
1.958
4.017
2.539
2.940
2.151
1.991
− .001
− .291
2.879
1.832
2.658
1.106
2.532
1.392
1.362
.314
2.888
1.416
1.546
2.229
3.269
1.937
− .013
1.546
1.989
2.404
2.421
2.369
2.058
.716
2.663
1.424
3.402
1.683
.303
1.292
1.608
p-value
.061
.517
.353
.051
.000**
.011**
.003**
.032
.047**
.999
.771
.004**
.067
.008**
.269
.012**
.165
.174
.754
.004**
.157
.123
.026**
.001**
.053
.990
.123
.047**
.017**
.016**
.018**
.040
.474
.008**
.155
.001**
.093
.762
.197
.108
lives. As most of the forest environments where this study was con
ducted are far from urban environments, it is difficult to implement
forest therapy as described by this study in everyday life. Furthermore,
getting out of daily routines and entering different environments can be
either beneficial or harmful, depending on the subjects and cases. The
participants in this study are adolescent children in foster care, and the
contrast of getting out of their daily life may be an advantage in the
short-term, but a weakness in the long-term. The program outlined in
this study, which was carried out on children in foster care, should be
considered for its positive short-term effects. At the same time, an in
crease in the frequency of forest therapy can be achieved by running
healing programs in accessible, local environments within living zones,
such as urban forests. Fifth, there was no explicit control over the per
sonal factors of the participants that could affect their interpersonal
relationships. We concede that this was because of data inadequacy. We
realize that controlling for participants’ personal traits would have made
the study more robust and we plan to do this in future research. Through
studies on factors affecting children’s interpersonal relationships in the
operation of forest healing programs, the program can be further
improved. To promote the forest environment at the child welfare level,
the following goals must be realized: First, forest resources and existing
forest welfare facilities must be improved at the child welfare level.
Second, cooperative systems for space utilization, program achieve
ment, and labor supply must be established between the Korean Forest
Service, local governments, and individuals to help children in urban
environments have more frequent access to forest therapy. Third, social
awareness of the need for underprivileged children to participate in
forest healing activities must be raised. Fourth, government welfare
policy and CSR (corporate social responsibility) for children must lend
continuous support to research on the effectiveness of forest healing
programs.
5. Conclusions
The purpose of this study was to raise awareness of the need for
related research to ensure that children can fully enjoy the benefits of
forests. For this purpose, we confirmed that forest-based therapy pro
grams were able to positively improve the interpersonal relationship
skills of adolescent children in foster care. Although adolescence is a
critical period for the development of sociality, child welfare in foster
institutions is mostly skewed toward providing material comfort.
Raising awareness of the need for child welfare in terms of their social
development is crucial. Thus, studies need to be carried out on the most
effective means to improve child welfare, and to examine existing pro
grams’ effectiveness. Forest-based therapy programs have significant
advantages over other methods in providing opportunities for children
to interact with various living and natural objects, and to benefit from
the psychological and physiological effects of the forest environment
itself. The continuous study of the benefits of forest therapy and the
special consideration of child welfare recipients, it will be possible to
improve the quality of child welfare and enhance the professionalism
and effectiveness of forest healing programs.
8
J. Hong et al.
Funding
Grant IDs of the research is FM0400-2018-03-2020, and funding
resources for the healing program are from Hyundai Motor Chung
Mong-Koo Foundation.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Jaeyoon Hong: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis,
Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing
- review & editing, Visualization. Sujin Park: Validation, Resources,
Supervision, Project administration. Miyeong An: Investigation, Re
sources, Data curation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
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