Plant Parenting: Its Influences on the Well-Being of College Students

The study explored the influence of plant parenting on the well-being of AB Psychology students during a pandemic. It further described the participants' engagement in plant-parenting, the benefits gained by the participants during the Pandemic, the challenges met by the participants during the Pandemic, and the improvements in wellbeing based on the participants' experiences as they engaged in plant-parenting. This study utilized a qualitative research method with purposive sampling for the number of participants. Semi-structured with open-ended interview guide questions were used to gather the necessary data for the study. Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis was adopted in the study's data analysis. Codes, categories, and common themes were identified from the transcript of in-depth interviews. Thirteen (13) emergent themes were established from the participants' responses that were classified under three (3) overarching themes that provided answers to the sub-problems. The emergent themes were extracted from the significant statements of the key participants. For the description of the participants on their experiences during the Pandemic, the overarching theme, Experience of the Participants During the Pandemic, has four (4) emergent themes that were classified as Lack of Social/Physical Interaction, Negative Physical Effects; Spending with their Family; and By Being Influenced to do Home Gardening. For the Plant-parenting on influencing the participant's ways of coping with the challenges met, the overarching theme is Plant-parenting on Influencing the Participant Ways of Coping, which has five (5) emergent themes that were classified as Gardening as a Coping Mechanism; Enhancing Self-Care; Developing Awareness; Character Development; and Improvement of Wellbeing. For the challenges on the participant's wellbeing during the Pandemic, the overarching theme is Challenges Affecting the Wellbeing during the Pandemic has four (4) emergent themes: Emerging Family Issues, Emerging Issues of Mental Stability, maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle, and Academic Performance. The findings and recommendations derived from the study were used to address the challenges met during a pandemic and to promote healthy well-being through plant parenting.