Nature Connection in Early Childhood: A Quantitative Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

There have been calls to reconnect children with nature, both for their own wellbeing, as well as for ecological sustainability. This has driven the growth of outdoor and nature-schools for all ages, but especially in the early childhood education sector. However, to date, there has not been a quantitative study that looks at whether these settings actually promote nature connection. This paper aims to examine the role of nature nurseries in the promotion of connection to nature, when compared to traditional nurseries. Data were collected on the nature connection, using the Connection to Nature Index for Parents of Preschool Children, of 216 children aged 1–8 years, 132 of whom attended nature nurseries while the rest attended traditional nurseries. Duration and frequency of attendance, sex, and parental nature connection were also reported. Statistical analyses were conducted for overall nature connection scores, individual dimension sub-scores and, for the children who attended nature nursery, against predictors. Results indicate that attending a nature nursery is associated with higher nature connection. Predictors for children’s connection to nature were parental nature connection, and total time spent in attendance of an outdoor nursery. This suggests a dose-response style relationship between attendance and nature connection. Implications for real-life applications are put forward and further research directions are explored.

Childhood nature connection and constructive hope: A review of research on connecting with nature and coping with environmental loss

“…This study highlights that the ‘nature’ in ‘nature connection’ means different things in different locations … but it also shows what parents notice when their young children engage with nature. When Barrable and Booth (2020a) used the same index with parents of nursery children in Scotland, they found it a good fit for this sample too, which suggests that it captures some common features of parents' perspectives.…”

More Time Children Spend in Nature During Preschool Is Associated with a Greater Sense of Responsibility for Nature: A Study in Finland

“…Against the hypotheses, none of the children's background characteristics, including sex, family's SES, parent's nature connectedness, or parent's visits in nature in free time, associated with a child's overall nature connectedness. In many of the previous studies teenager's proenvironmental values, attitudes, and behaviors have shown a correlation with their parent's proenvironmental values and behaviors (Barrable & Booth, 2020;Grønhøj & Thøgersen, 2017;Katz-Gerro et al, 2020;Leppänen et al, 2012;Li & Liu, 2016;Musitu-Ferrer et al, 2019). Thus, most surprisingly, not even the parent's nature connectedness associated with child's nature connectedness level in this study.…”

“…Nature connectedness. There are not currently any self-report questionnaires developed to evaluate nature connectedness in 6-to 7-year-old children (Barrable & Booth, 2020). However, The CNI questionnaire (Cheng & Monroe, 2012), which was originally developed for 8-to 10-year-old children, have demonstrated to be the most comprehendible and suitable also for 7-to 13-year-old children (Bragg, Wood, Barton, & Pretty, 2013).…”

Early Childhood Education Teachers’ Perception of Outdoor Learning Activities in the Spanish Region of Extremadura

“…Working in natural environments promotes pupils' spirit of observation and study, and this contact with nature is necessary to analyze and systematize the information gathered later in another context [23]. This type of education allows children to reconnect with nature, both for their well-being and for ecological sustainability [24]. It is therefore clear that education has a key role to play in contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals [25,26].…”