Outdoor recreation and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

This dataset contains a section of survey data collected as part of the Play2Cope project led by the Health, Environment, and Leisure Research Lab at the Oregon State University. Responses were provided by a U.S. adult sample (n = 503) representative of the U.S. adult population in age, gender, and race through an online survey set up on Qualtrics and distributed through Prolific, a crowd-sourcing research platform in February, 2021. This dataset included a total of 71 variables focusing on participants' outdoor recreation behavior (e.g., frequency, most frequent activity, change in activity during COVID-19), mental health status (i.e., mental well-being, depression, perceived stress), and mental health risk and protective factors. This dataset provides valuable data for studying the role of outdoor recreation as U.S. adults managed stressors and mental health during one of the deadliest phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.