<p> The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between green environments and resilience in older adults. It had two aims: 1) to explore the effect of a reflective garden walking program on resilience and three of its related concepts— perceived stress, personal growth initiative, and quality of life—in older adults, and 2) to explore the resilience patterns of older adults engaging in the reflective garden walking intervention. A parallel mixed method design using a quasi-experimental quantitative and a descriptive exploratory qualitative approach was used. Participants engaged in a six week reflective garden walking program. By the end of the program, resilience levels exhibited a slight increase and perceived stress levels a decrease. The qualitative data supported some beneficial effects of the reflective garden walking program, but also indicated that much of the participants’ experience of resilience may have been related to the rich social and nature-filled environment in which already they lived. Patterns of resilience that appeared in the data were <i>maintaining a positive attitude, belief in one’s self in the face of one’s vulnerabilities, woven into the social fabric, purpose and meaning, personal strength, and communities for growing older</i></p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10154932 |
| Date | 10 September 2016 |
| Creators | Bailey, Christie N. |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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