Spending time in nature is beneficial for physical and mental health, as well as emotional well-being. Previous research suggests that students in the United States and the United Kingdom feel disconnected from nature as a result of decreased time spent outdoors. Often referred to as nature deficit disorder, this means that as children and adolescents spend less time outdoors, they are not receiving the benefits of being in nature. While some research has explored how young children perceive and understand nature, few studies have addressed how adolescents from diverse backgrounds perceive nature. This study investigated how adolescents conceptualize nature and their relationship with the environment.
Experiences in nature may be perceived differently based on age, race, gender, ethnicity, social class, and location (rural versus urban). Some researchers hypothesize that students with diverse backgrounds may express their perceptions differently. For many years, the predominant worldview was that nature was only valued because of its resources (anthropocentrism). During the environmental movement of the 1960s, activists challenged this worldview and inspired people to value the intrinsic value of nature (ecocentrism). Recently, researchers proposed a third worldview that suggests nature has intrinsic value but that humans have a special relationship with nature compared to other species (human-related).
The researchers recruited 384 students (43.5% female and 56.5% male), aged 13 to 14 years old, from four schools in England. The authors selected the schools to ensure the sample included culturally and socioeconomically diverse students from different types of communities. Three schools were in urban settings and one was rural. St. Andrews and City Road were inner-city state schools with diverse populations of students living in low-income and densely populated regions of the country. Camford College was an urban, highly competitive all-boys school. Wheatfield High was located in a rural region near farming communities. The researchers distributed a questionnaire that contained open-ended questions asking what students understood about nature and the environment, and whether it was important to them. The researchers analyzed the participants' responses to identify their conceptions of and relationship with nature.
From the data, authors identified two categories of understanding of nature, scientific and aesthetic, and two categories of relationship with nature, utilitarian and intrinsically valued. The data were also analyzed according to environmental worldview, namely anthropocentric, ecocentric, or human-related.
Overall, the majority of the students had a scientific perception of nature, with many describing biological components, such as plants and animals. In addition, the authors highlighted that very few of the students' responses mentioned humans as part of nature. Many students believed that humans relied on nature and its resources for survival, suggesting an anthropocentric worldview.
Regarding the students' conceptions of nature, the authors identified both scientific and aesthetic components. While most students (78%) identified plants and animals as parts of nature, some also included non-living things such as the seas, deserts, rocks, and rivers in their understanding of nature. In addition, some students (27%) described nature as beautiful, fragile, or powerful. In terms of their relationship with nature, the majority of students (54%) stated that nature provided necessary resources for human survival, indicating a utilitarian relationship. Only a small percentage of students (5%) identified an intrinsic value to nature, stating that they felt an emotional connection with nature that inspired them to protect and conserve the environment.
The researchers also explored how students' responses differed across gender, location, and school type. The findings indicated that more girls felt attached to animals and appreciated their beauty compared to boys, and that this emotional attachment was particularly heightened in rural regions. Boys felt that humans were separate from the environment while girls highlighted the intrinsic value of nature. However, boys from the rural school were more likely to view nature as unimportant compared to boys from the urban schools. The researchers were surprised by this finding and hypothesized that a rural setting does not guarantee more impactful experiences with nature compared to urban regions, especially if urban parks are accessible. In terms of school type, the findings indicated that more boys from the highly competitive school (Camford College) identified aesthetic values of nature compared to other participants.
This study had some limitations. First, the authors picked the schools to study rather than using a random sampling approach. While the authors attempted to study students of diverse backgrounds, the selected students were not necessarily representative of the larger student population. In addition, the researchers only collected data from four schools, and only one was rural. The results should not be generalized to all schools within England. Lastly, the students did not have similar nature experiences to reflect upon, suggesting that students were likely reflecting upon different experiences. To better understand how perceptions differ across students of varying backgrounds, it could be beneficial to survey students after a similar field trip or experience with nature.
The authors recommend that environmental educators consider how students from various backgrounds perceive nature and adjust environmental education curricula to ensure it appeals to the audience. In addition, educators should consider including arts and social sciences into EE curricula as these courses may encourage adolescents to develop nature-centered worldviews as opposed to human-centered.
The Bottom Line
This research investigated how adolescent students from varying cultural, socio-economic, and rural/urban backgrounds perceived the environment. The authors distributed surveys to 384 participants at four schools in England that represented diverse populations. Findings demonstrated that the majority of students held human-centered worldviews and felt that nature provided necessary resources for human survival. However, female participants indicated an intrinsic value of nature more than male participants. The researchers recommend that environmental educators consider how students' backgrounds may influence their perceptions and include arts and social sciences in EE curricula to encourage students to develop nature-centered worldviews.