Increasing Nature Connection in Children: A Mini Review of Interventions

Half of the world's population live in the urban environment. Lifestyle changes in the 20th century have led to spending more time indoors and less in nature. Due to safety concerns, longer hours in formal education, as well as lack of suitable outdoor environments, children in particular have...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inFrontiers in psychology Vol. 11; p. 492
Main Authors Barrable, Alexia, Booth, David
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 19.03.2020
Subjects
children
environmental education
intervention
nature connection
Psychology
sustainability
environmental education
nature connection
intervention
children
sustainability
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Half of the world's population live in the urban environment. Lifestyle changes in the 20th century have led to spending more time indoors and less in nature. Due to safety concerns, longer hours in formal education, as well as lack of suitable outdoor environments, children in particular have been found to spend very little time outdoors. We have an opportunity, both timely and unique to have our children (re)connect with nature. Nature connection is a subjective state and trait that encompasses affective, cognitive, and experiential aspects in addition to being positively associated with wellbeing, and strong predictor of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. This mini-review brings together recent studies that report on interventions to increase nature connection in children. Fourteen studies were identified through electronic searches of Web of Science, Scopus, PsychInfo, ERIC, and Google Scholar. The review aims to offer an overview of the interventions identified, provide a snapshot of the current state of the literature, briefly present themes and trends in the studies identified in relation to nature connection in young people, and propose potential guidelines for future work.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-3
content type line 23
ObjectType-Review-1
Reviewed by: César O. Tapia-Fonllem, University of Sonora, Mexico; Roberta Fadda, University of Cagliari, Italy
This article was submitted to Environmental Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
Edited by: Sabine Pirchio, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00492