One result of increasing urbanization is a progressive separation of humans from nature. This concern is sometimes referred to as “extinction of experience.” This study addressed the concern by simultaneously investigating the effects of opportunity for nature contact in an urban environment and nature-orientation on children's frequency of contact with nature. The goal was to identify what drives and limits urban children's engagement with nature.
A total of 5801 children from 45 elementary schools in central Japan completed a survey about their levels of direct experiences with neighborhood nature. The survey asked for information about frequency of nature experiences, extent of nature relatedness, time pressure, inclination towards screen-based media, and family members' attitudes towards nature-based activities. The scale used to assess nature relatedness addressed cognitive, affective, and physical connections to nature. Researchers also calculated the degree of urbanization of school surroundings and used this calculation as a measure of children's opportunity to interact with nature.
An analysis of the data showed that as the extent of urbanization increased, children's frequency of direct experiences with local biodiversity decreased. These findings are consistent with other research showing that children living in more urbanized areas generally have fewer opportunities for interacting with nature. Results also showed that children reporting higher levels of individual nature relatedness were significantly more likely to have more frequent nature experiences than children not scoring high in nature connectedness. Another significant finding was the positive link between the frequency of children's nature experiences and their family members' nature orientation. Boys reported more frequent participation in nature-based activities than girls. Time pressure was not related to frequency of nature contact. In contrast to previous research, inclination towards screen-based media did not predict less contact with nature; in fact the children who were inclined toward nature tended to also be somewhat inclined toward media use. The authors offer several ideas for why this surprising finding may have been found. Overall results showed that nature orientation (an individual's nature relatedness and family members' attitudes towards nature-based activities) was more influential in children's use of neighborhood nature than the opportunity to engage in nature, as determined by the degree of urbanization.
This research found that multiple environmental and personal factors determined children's direct engagement with neighborhood nature. Implications for policy makers and others working to strengthen children's connection with nature include providing a variety of complementary approaches and preserving biodiversity in children's local environments. Efforts designed to enhance the nature orientation of children and their families may be effective in reducing, and possibly reversing, the extinction of experience.
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