Environmental self-regulation in favourite places of Finnish and Hungarian adults

The aim of the study was to investigate the benefits of favourite physical places for well-being based on the idea of environmental self-regulation. It proposes that everyday favourite places are used as a “coping mechanism” to enhance subjective well-being through reflection, emotion regulation and withdrawal. We investigated the connection between reasons for visiting the favourite place, consequent experiences and perceived well-being (satisfaction with life and perceived health) through structural equation modelling. We also analysed the reversed model, where well-being affects the reasons for visiting and experiences in favourite places. Finnish and Hungarian participants (N = 784) answered an internet-based questionnaire. Concerning the relationships between reasons, experiences and well-being variables, all of the three reason factors (“Sad, depressed”; ” Happy, well”; “Alone, reflective) were significantly and positively related to the factor “Experiences of positive recovery of self”. This indicates that favourite places do indeed facilitate self-regulation by transforming negative cognitions and feelings into positive ones. However, positive recovery experiences were not related to well-being but distress experiences were negatively related to life satisfaction and perceived health. The reversed model revealed a top-down relation of life satisfaction with positive and negative reasons.