Cultural ecosystem services show superiority in promoting subjective mental health of senior residents: Evidences from old urban areas of Beijing

It has been widely recognized that urban green space provides various benefits to old adults. However, there is a lack of discussion about the impact of cultural ecosystem services (CES) of green space on seniors' mental health. We selected 20 parks in the old urban areas of Beijing and collected a total of 693 valid questionnaires from senior residents. Structural equation models were applied to examine the linkage between characteristics of parks (including green space, neighborhood environment, CES) and senior residents' self-reported mental health, with respondents' physical activity, social interaction, and satisfaction as mediators. Results highlighted the superiority of CES among all variables in promoting the subjective mental health of senior residents. In addition, we found the mediating role of the satisfaction with parks and social interaction in the linkage between CES and mental health. Moreover, results suggested that the area of green space was not directly related to mental health, but positively influenced older adults' mental health by enhancing their physical activity. Besides, we also found that neighborhood environment around a park may directly and positively affect seniors' mental health, while negatively affecting it by adversely affecting satisfaction with the park. These findings reflect the superiority of cultural ecosystem services in enhancing older adults' mental health, which enriches the original green space health framework, and may have direct implication for the conservation of cultural landscape in the future.