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ABSTRACT
Restoration/restorativeness is defined as the recovery of diminished daily functions and capabilities, largely during people's free time. Research on recovery requires measurements of the degree of restoration/restorativeness, driving the development of self-report scales on recovery. This study reviews existing self-report restoration/restorativeness scales based on PICOS (population, intervention, comparator, outcome, and study design) and psychometrics to provide suggestions for future applications. Systematic search methods and a simple snowball process were conducted for the direct and explicit self-report scales on restoration/restorativeness published in journal articles. The Web of Science was used as the database. Among the identified 15 scales, only 3 have been adequately analyzed using psychometrics. Of these 3, the Perceived Restorativeness Scale has the best generalizability and sensitivity for measuring the attentional restorativeness perceived in the environment, while the Restoration Scale is most suitable for measuring the perceived change in psychophysiological and mental restoration.
KEYWORDS
stress reduction theory; attention restoration theory; psychometrics; PICOS; PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis)
In developed countries, 75% of the population lives in cities (Habitat, 2001). In the next 30 years, two-thirds of the global population will live in metropolitan areas (Vlahov & Galea, 2002). Nevertheless, modern urban life, which is characterized by its bombardment of crowding, traffic, and information (Lewis, 1990) and lack of natural elements, is considered stressful (Lederbogen et al., 2011) and has increased individual concern with physical and psychological health and well-being (Desjarlais, Eisenberg, Good, & Kleinman, 1995; WHO, 2001). Stress relief is, therefore, not only helpful for health and well-being (Rice, 1999) but also likely conducive to buffering against future stressful experiences (cf. van den Berg, Maas, Verheij, & Groenewegen, 2010). Exposure to nature is often regarded as beneficial to humans (Ulrich & Parsons, 1992). Research on restoration/restorativeness while in contact with nature reflects this trend. For example, the number of journal articles focusing on this subject has risen since 1972 (cf. Han, 2011). Moreover, academic journals have begun to feature special issues on restoration/ restorativeness, including Environment and Behavior (2001, vol. 33, no. 4), Journal of Environmental Psychology (2003, vol. 23, no. 2), and Journal of Housing for the Elderly (2005, vol. 19, no. 3/4; 2007, vol. 21, no.3/4).
Restoration, and/or restorativeness, is generally defined as the renewal of...