White, M; Hartig, T, Martin, L, Pahl, S, van den Berg, A, Wells, NM, Costongs, C, Dzhambov, A, Eder, M, Elliott, L, Godfrey, A, Hartl, A, Konijnendijk, C, Litt, J, Lovell, R, Lymeus, F, O’Driscoll, C, Pichler, C, Pouso, S, Razani, N, Secco, L, Stigsdotter, U, Uyarra, M, van den Bosch, M (2023). Nature-based biopsychosocial resilience: An integrative theoretical framework for research on nature and health. Environment International, 181. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.108234
Wells, NM, Cosco, NG, Hales, D., Monsur, M., & Moore, RC (2023). Gardening in Childcare Centers: A Randomized Controlled Trial Examining Effects of a Garden Intervention on Physical Activity Among Children Aged 3-5 Years in North Carolina. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20115939
Kuo, M, Dettweiler, U, Faber Taylor, A, Jordan, C, & Wells, NM (2023). Nature-based learning and development: Maximizing the returns on investment – vol 2. Editorial. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1304644
Rahai, R., Wells, NM, Evans, GW (2023). School Greenspace is Associated with Enhanced Benefits of Academic Interventions on Annual Reading Improvement for Children of Color in California, 86, doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.101966
Phillips, T. P., Wells, N.M., Brown, A., Tralins, J., and Bonter, D. (2023). Nature and Well-being: The association of nature engagement and well-being during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. People & Nature. doi: 10.1002/pan3.10433
Wells, NM, Todd, LE, Henderson, Jr., CR, Myers, BM, Barale, K., Gaolach, B, Ferenz, G, Aitken, M, Hendrix, L, Taylor, C, Wilkins, JL (2023). The effects of school gardens on fruit and vegetable consumption at school: A randomized controlled trial with low-income elementary schools in four U.S. states. Preventive Medicine Reports, 31, 102053 doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.102053
Cosco, NG, Wells, NM, Monsur, M, Goodell, LS, Zhang, D, Xu, T, Moore, RC (2022). Hands-on childcare gardening intervention: A randomized controlled trial to assess effects on fruit and vegetable identification, liking, and consumption among children aged 3-5 years in North Carolina. Frontiers in Psychology, 13:993637 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.993637
Patchen, AK, Rakow, D, Wells, NM, Hillson, S, Meredith, GR (2022). Barriers to children’s outdoor time: teachers’ and principals’ experiences in elementary schools. Environmental Education Research, 1-21. doi: 10.1080/13504622.2022.2099530
Celikors, E & Wells, NM (2022). Are low-level visual features of scenes associated with perceived restorative qualities? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81, doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101800
Wells, N.M. (2021). The natural environment as a resilience factor: Nature’s role as a buffer of the effects of risk and adversity. In: A. Schutte, J. Stevens & J. Torquati (Eds.), Nature and Psychology: How the Natural World Shapes our Cognition. 67th Annual Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. The University of Nebraska. Springer Science + Business Media. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-69020-5_7
Cosco, NG, Wells, NM, Monsur, M, Goodell, L.S, Zhang, D, Xu, T, Hales, D, Moore, RC (2021). Research Design, Protocol, and Participant Characteristics of COLEAFS: A cluster randomized controlled trial of a childcare garden intervention. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182413066
Michael, J, Wells, NM, Shahum, L, Bidigare-Curtis, HN, Greenberg, S, Tong, X (2021). Roadway Safety, Design & Equity: A Paradigm Shift. Journal of Transport & Health, 23, (Health Equity + Mobility, special issue) doi: 10.1016/j.jth.2021.101260
Li, D., Menotti, T. and Ding, Y., Wells, NM (2021). Evaluating the Evidence for Life Course Nature Exposure and Mental Health Outcomes: A systematic review and Future Directions. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18 (10), 5146. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18105146
Aldred Cheek, KL and Wells, NM (2019). Changing Behavior through Design: A lab fume hood closure experiment. Frontiers in the Built Environment. 5, 146 doi: doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2019.00146
Curtis, DS, Fuller-Rowell, TE, Vilches, S, Vonasek, J & Wells, NM (2019). Parks and recreation expenditures as a predictor of low birth weight incidence: Evidence from five periods of national birth records data. Preventive Medicine Reports. doi: doi.org/10.1177/00139165211031199
Wells, NM Rollings, KA, Ong, AD, & Reid, MC (2019). Nearby nature buffers the pain catastrophizing-pain intensity relation among urban residents with chronic pain. Frontiers in Built Environment, 5, 1-13. doi: doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2019.00142
Razani, N, Niknam, K, Kennedy, G, Thompson, D, Hills, N, Wells, NM, Rutherford, G, and Gilgoff, R (2019). Clinic and park partnerships for childhood resilience: a prospective study of park prescriptions. Health & Place, 57, 179-185. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2019.04.008
Buxton, JA, Ryan RL, & Wells NM (2019). Exploring Preferences for Urban Greening. Cities and the Environment (CATE), 12 (1), article 3. link: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cate/vol12/iss1/3
Wells, N. M., Myers, B. M., Todd, L. E., Henderson, C. R., Barale, K., Gaolach, B., Ferenz, G., Aitken, M, Tse, C.C., Pattison, K.O., Hendrix, L., Carson, J.B., Taylor, J.B., & Franz, N.K. (2018). The carry-over effects of school gardens on fruit and vegetable availability at home: A randomized controlled trial with low-income elementary schools. Preventive Medicine, 112, 152-159. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2018.03.022
Rollings, KA & Wells, NM (2018). Cafeteria Assessment for Elementary Schools (CAFES): Development, reliability testing, and predictive validity analysis. BMC Public Health,18 (1), 1154. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-6032-2
Pinter-Wollman, N., Jelić A., & Wells, N.M. (2018). The impact of the built environment on health behaviors and disease transmission in social systems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B., 373 (1753), 20170245. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0245
Razani, N., Morshed, S., Kohn, M., Wells, NM, Thompson, D., Alqassari, M., Agodi, A., Long, D., Rutherford, G. (2018). Effect of park prescriptions with and without group visits to parks on stress reduction in low-income parents: SHINE randomized trial. PLoSONE, 13 (2), e0192921. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192921
Brittin J, Frerichs L, Sirard JR, Wells NM, Myers BM, Garcia J, Sorensen D, Trowbridge MJ, Huang TTK (2017). Impact of Active School Design on School-Time Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity: A Pilot Natural Experiment. PLoSONE 12(12): e0189236. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189236
Rollings, K.A., Wells, N.M., Evans, G.W., Bednarz, A., & Yang, Y. (2017). Housing and neighborhood physical quality: children ‘s mental health and learned helplessness. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 50, 17-23. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2017.01.004
Todd, L.E., Wells, N.M., Wilkins, J.L., & Echon, R.M. (2017). Digital Food Image Analysis as a measure of children’s fruit and vegetable consumption in the elementary school cafeteria: A description and critique. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, 4, 516-528. doi: 10.1080/19320248.2016.1275996
Rollings, K.A. & Wells, N.M. (2017). Effects of residential kitchen floor plan openness on eating behaviors. Environment & Behavior, 49(6). doi: 10.1177/0013916516661822
Pillemer, K., Wells, N.M., Meador, R.H., Schultz, L., Henderson, C.R., Cope, M.T. (2017). Engaging Older Adults in Environmental Volunteerism: The Retirees in Service to the Environment (RISE) Program. The Gerontologist, 57 (2), 367-375. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnv693
Razani, N., Kohn, M.A., Wells, N.M., Thompson, D., Flores, H.H., Rutherford, G.W. (2016). Design and evaluation of a park prescription program for stress reduction and health promotion in low-income families: the Stay Healthy in Nature Everyday (SHINE) study protocol. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 51, 8-14. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2016.09.007
Myers, B.M. & Wells, N.M. (2015). Children’s physical activity while gardening: development of a valid and reliable direct observation tool. Journal of Physical Activity & Health, 12 (4), 522-528. doi: 10.1123/jpah.2013-0290
Rollings, K.A., Wells, N.M., Evans, G.W. (2015). Measuring physical neighborhood quality related to health. Behavioral Sciences, 5, 190-202. doi: 10.3390/bs5020190
Demment, M., Wells, N., and Olson, C. (2015). Associations between the rural middle school nutrition and physical activity environment, family income trajectory, and change in BMI z-scores during adolescence. Journal of School Health, 85(2), 100-108. doi: 10.1111/josh.12227
Wells, N.M., Myers, B.M., & Henderson, C.R. (2014). School gardens & physical activity: A randomized controlled trial of low-income elementary schools. Preventive Medicine, 69S, S27-S33. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.10.012
Wells, N.M., Myers, B.M., & Henderson, C.R. (2014). Study Protocol: School gardens and physical activity. Archives of Public Health. 72:43. doi: 10.1186/2049-3258-72-43
Olson, C.M., Baker, I., Demment, M., Graham, M., May, J., Strawderman, M., Wells, N.M. (2014). The healthy start partnership: An approach to obesity prevention in young families. Family and Community Health, 37 (1), 74-85. doi: 10.1097/FCH.0000000000000016
Wells, N.M. (2013). The role of nature in children’s resilience: cognitive and social processes. In: K. Tidball & M. Krasny (Eds.) Greening in the Red Zone. (pp. 95-109). Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-90-481-9947-1_7
Wells, N.M. & Rollings K.A. (2012) The natural environment: Influences on human health and function. In S. Clayton (Ed.) The Handbook on Environmental and Conservation Psychology. (pp 509-523). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199733026.013.0027
Wells, N.M. and Lekies, K.S. (2012). Children and nature: following the trail to environmental attitudes and behavior. In: J. Dickinson and R. Bonney (Eds.) Citizen Science: public collaboration in environmental research. (pp. 201-213). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Gantner, L.A., doi: 10.7591/cornell/9780801449116.003.0015
Olson, C.M., Frongillo, E., Wells, N.M., (2011). Prevalence of non-traditional food stores and distance to healthy foods in a rural food environment. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, 6, 279-293. doi: 10.1080/19320248.2011.597829
Pillemer, K., Wells, N.M., Wagenet, L., Meador, R.H. and Parise, J.T. (2011). Environmental sustainability in an aging society: A research agenda. The Journal of Aging and Health, 23(3), 433-452. doi: 10.1177/0898264310381278
Wells, N.M. & Donofrio, G.A. (2011). Urban planning, the natural environment, and public health. In: J.O. Nriagu (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Environmental Health, volume 5, pp.565-575. [pdf] doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-52272-6.00480-3
Wells, N.M., Ashdown, S.P., Davies, E.H.S., Cowett, F.D., & Yang, Y. (2007). Environment, Design, and Obesity: Opportunity for Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research. Environment and Behavior, 39 (1), 6-33. [pdf] doi: 10.1177/0013916506295570
Wells, N.M. & Evans, G.E. (2003). Nearby nature: A buffer of life stress among rural children. Environment and Behavior, 35 (3), 311-330. [pdf] doi: 10.1177/0013916503035003001