Children's significant life experiences in nature have small effects on their environmental knowledge and behaviors

Coupling EE with significant life experiences (SLEs) may bolster students' environmental knowledge and foster pro-environmental behaviors. SLEs were defined as spending time in nature, having an adult role model to facilitate outdoor experiences, and engaging with nature through media. According to research, SLEs during childhood can be profoundly influential, leading to environmental engagement and activism in adulthood. To date, SLE research has focused on environmentally engaged adults and the formative experiences that inspired them to pursue environmental activism. The SLE studies that do involve children have focused on how SLEs influence environmental attitudes. Yet, little evidence exists to support the idea that pro-environmental attitudes directly translate into pro-environmental behaviors. The purpose of this study was to explore how SLEs impact children's environmental knowledge and behaviors. Specifically, the researchers focused on SLEs related to time spent alone in nature, time spent with family in nature, time spent in nature with an adult role model, and time spent with nature through media.

The authors focused their study on middle school students in North Carolina. They first drew a random sample of 40 middle schools across the state and then randomly selected science teachers from each school. The teachers randomly chose one of their science classes to participate in the study; a total of 10 sixth grade classes and 8 eighth grade classes participated. The authors visited each of the classrooms to collect demographic information from students, administer surveys to teachers regarding their experience and education, and administer surveys to students about their SLEs. They used the Middle School Environmental Literacy tool to measure environmental knowledge and behaviors and used the 2008 National Environmental Literacy Assessment report as a guide to assign environmental knowledge and behavior scores to students. The knowledge section of the survey included questions about ecology, energy, and other environmental sciences. The behavior section included questions about energy conservation, water conservation, recycling, and advocacy. The authors analyzed the survey data to identify relationships between students' SLEs and their environmental knowledge and behavior scores.

The authors found that as youth spent more time with groups in nature, their environmental knowledge scores rose slightly. Similarly, as youth spent more time in nature alone or with family, their pro-environmental behavior scores increased slightly. Conversely, the more time youth spent viewing nature TV, the lower their environmental knowledge scores were. The authors did not find a significant relationship between having a nature role model and pro-environmental behaviors.

The researchers accredit the relatively small increases in environmental knowledge and pro-environmental behaviors to the fact that the time children and youth spend in nature today is different than it has been in the past. Today, children and youth spend less time engaged directly with nature and more time playing sports and participating in technology-enhanced outdoor experiences. These experiences may be limited in terms of building deeper connections between youth and nature. The negative correlation between time spent viewing nature TV and environmental knowledge may be due to the fact that, if youth are watching TV, then they are incurring the negative impacts of screen time and are forgoing actual outdoor experiences. The absence of any significant relationship between role models and pro-environmental behaviors may have been because role models only impact certain types of people or because the impacts of role models are not felt until later in life.

Perhaps more than SLEs, demographics proved to be important predictors of environmental knowledge. Students from higher median income areas, students taught by teachers with Master's degrees, and students in smaller classes all demonstrated greater environmental knowledge than those students from lower income areas, in larger classrooms, and taught by teachers with less education. Additionally, students of color scored lower on environmental knowledge measures than their white peers, although American Indian students scored the highest on pro-environmental behavior measures.

This study took place in North Carolina, thus the results may vary in other states or locations. Given the strong relationship between demographic factors and environmental knowledge and behaviors, the survey instrument may have had a cultural bias due to how certain questions were asked. Additionally, the survey responses were self-reported rather than directly observed, meaning that participants may have over-reported how often they take pro-environmental behaviors.

Because SLEs have been shown to have positive results when integrated into school-based EE lessons, the authors recommend that EE practitioners work toward enhancing education equality and closing the achievement gap. The results further demonstrate that education inequalities present significant barriers to the widespread effectiveness of EE in schools.