Introduction: Research indicates that rapid urbanisation contributes to a loss of connection with both the natural world and other people, both of which can undermine human well-being. By contrast, making an effort to maintain contact with nature, e.g. through voluntary nature visits, promotes well-being, at least in part due to greater perceptions of local community cohesion (e.g. due to seeing others engaging in similar/collective activities in neighbourhood parks). However, several questions remain, including the generalisability of these findings to different contexts and the role of existing social contacts in these processes.


Purpose & Methods: Using cross-sectional data from 704 Australians in the BlueHealth International Survey, the current study aimed to build on existing research by exploring the effect of visits to local green spaces on subjective well-being, via the mediating mechanism of perceived community cohesion, while also considering the potential moderating role of regular social contact (i.e., whether these mechanisms might be more important for those with less frequent contact with close others).


Results: Structural equation modelling found, as predicted, that: a) frequency of visits to local green spaces positively predicted subjective well-being; and b) this was partially mediated by perceived community cohesion. It did not, however, find support for the hypothesis that this may be moderated by general social contacts.


Conclusions: Findings reiterate the role of community cohesion in mediating the relationship between contact with local green spaces and subjective well-being but suggest further research is needed to explore potential moderators of these associations.