The relationship among nature exposure, psychological flow, and psychological capital: the moderating role of nature connectedness

Mental health issues impose considerable burdens and challenges on society, but outdoor sport offers an accessible and cost-effective method to mitigate these mental health concerns. Drawing upon positive psychology, we employed a two-wave time-lagged survey design to investigate how exposure to nature through snow sports influences psychological flow (PsyFlw) and psychological capital (PsyCap) among Japanese individuals (N = 174; Mage = 46.33). We also assessed the moderating role of nature connectedness (NC) in the above relationships as human beings are innately variant in the level of connections with nature. We first got the latent change score to capture the changes of PsyCap between the two waves and analysed relationships by structural equation modelling. Findings showed that the mediating effect of PsyFlw on the association between nature exposure and changes in PsyCap will be significantly stronger when the individual has higher NC. These results highlighted the unique benefits of exposure to nature through snow sports, emphasizing the value of outdoor recreation and the natural environment as integral to public health policy.