4. Discussion
PHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS
In light of the increased attention being paid to the mental health of adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic, we aimed to evaluate the effect of a simple virtual nature-based intervention, i.e., watching a 2-D video, on reducing psycho-physiological stress in university students. This study provides evidence to add to the existing literature on the effectiveness of brief virtual nature-based intervention on the wellbeing of the university students during the pandemic. Our findings show that watching 15-min videos of three nature-based scenes, including urban nature, marine nature and forest nature, for 3 weeks resulted in psychological benefits for the participants, namely, increased happiness, along with comfortable, relaxed, and natural emotions. However, no influence was found on physiological stress. Despite increasing research into the adoption of VR technology in nature-based interventions that emphasize a fuller immersion in a simulated natural environment, we demonstrate that a simple 2-D video can be an effective, low-cost, convenient alternative to 