Journal of Meditation based Psychological Counseling (J Medit Psychol Couns)
Indexed in KCI
OPEN ACCESS, PEER REVIEWED
pISSN 2289-0823
eISSN 2671-6119
Research Article

Exploring the psychological meaning structure of campus walking experiences among university students through language network analysis

Associate Professor, Department of Meditation Psychological Counseling, Dongguk University-WISE, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to Lee, Youngrim, E-mail: child-b@hanmail.net

Volume 36, Pages 107-117, April 2026.
Journal of Meditation Based Psychological Counseling 2026, 36, 107-117. https://doi.org/10.12972/mpca.2026.36.8
Received on March 26, 2026, Revised on April 23, 2026, Accepted on April 29, 2026, Published on April 30, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 Meditation based Psychological Counseling Association.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0).

Abstract

This study explored the psychological meaning structure of campus walking experiences among university students using language network analysis. The collected textual data were preprocessed using Python, followed by word frequency analysis and the construction of a co-occurrence network. Centrality analysis and CONCOR analysis were conducted to identify semantic clusters within the network. As a result, four clusters were identified and labeled as ‘Mind Care’, ‘Body-Based Recovery’, ‘Sensory Everyday Experience’, and ‘Nature Interaction’. In the centrality analysis, walking exhibited the highest centrality and functioned as the central node in the network, while mind, nature, and companionship also ranked among the top nodes in terms of betweenness centrality. Overall, walking experiences were structured into four domains in which emotional and nature-related meanings were organized around physical activity. These findings suggest that walking is perceived not merely as a movement activity but as a complex experience in which physical, emotional, and environmental elements are interconnected. This study contributes to the literature by quantitatively presenting the semantic network structure of walking experiences through text-based language network analysis.
Keywords

campus walking experiences, psychological recovery, emotional experience, nature interaction, meaning structure

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