Increased nature contact explains the relationship between family members’ positive attitudes toward nature and improved learning outcomes among urban children in ChinaRecent research shows that nature can boost academic success by improving attention, lowering stress, and enhancing self-regulation. Family factors are also known to impact children's academic performance. This study integrates and extends both areas of research to clarify how “family and natural factors jointly shape children’s school success.” The study examined the mechanisms that connect nature-related factors, with a focus on family members' attitudes toward nature, to children’s school success. School success was conceptualized as a multidimensional construct that incorporated emotional (learning anxiety) and behavioral (learning engagement) processes. The aims of this three-year study were twofold. First, the study investigated whether children’s contact with nature explained the relationships between family members’ attitudes toward nature and children’s learning engagement, learning anxiety and academic achievement. Second, the study examined how residential green space, across a range of spatial scales, influenced these relationships.
Four hundred twenty-nine children were recruited to participate in the study from three public urban schools in Shandong Province, China. At the start of the study, the children’s average age was 9.86 years. Most of the children were from middle-class families. Data was collected over the course of three years (T1, T2, and T3) during which the children completed a series of questionnaires to assess nature-related and academic variables. The questionnaire administered in the first study year (T1) asked children to report their demographic information, family members’ attitudes toward nature (FMATN), nature contact (using the Green Contact Index), learning anxiety (using the learning anxiety subscale of the Mental Health Test) and learning engagement (using the learning engagement scale). The questionnaire administered in the second year of the study (T2) repeated the nature contact assessment. The year three (T3) questionnaire repeated the learning anxiety and learning engagement assessments. Children’s academic achievement, based on final examination scores in three core subjects (Chinese, Mathematics, and English), was reported by teachers in the third year. Additionally, green space surrounding children’s homes was assessed during the first year. Green space was quantified using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to determine vegetation density at buffer zones of 50 m, 100 m, 250 m, 300 m, 500 m, 1 km, and 2 km around each child’s residence. The buffer distances were represented as NDVI 1 through NDVI 7, respectively. Data analysis employed statistical modeling to examine relationships between the outcomes.
Preliminary analysis revealed that: (1) family members’ attitudes toward nature (FMATN) at T1 were significantly related to children’s nature contact at T2; and (2) higher levels of nature contact at T2 were linked to reduced learning anxiety and increased learning engagement and academic achievement at T3. Preliminary analysis did not detect any relationships between residential green space and FMATN at T1, nature contact at T2 or school success at T3. Next, the main analysis examined the role of nature contact in the relationship between FMATN and academic achievement. Results indicated that contact with nature explained how FMATN predicted academic achievement at T3. This finding suggests that FMATN is linked to increased time in nature and, in turn, spending more time in nature is related to improved academic outcomes. Additionally, FMATN was found to have significant indirect effects on learning engagement and academic achievement at T3 through the pathway of nature contact at T2. The indirect effect on learning anxiety via nature contact at T2 was marginally significant. The final phase of analysis employed a series of models to examine the role of residential green space in the relationship between nature contact (T2) and school success (T3). Results showed that green space at buffer levels near the home (NDVI 1 - NDVI 4) did not influence the relationship between nature contact and school success. On the other hand, green space at NDVI 5 (500 m) and NDVI 6 (1 km) buffer distances was found to significantly influence the relationship between nature contact and academic achievement. Specifically, for children with low levels of green space at NDVI 5 and NDVI 6, increased nature contact was linked with improved academic achievement; however, this relationship did not exist for children with high levels of green space at the same buffer distances. Further, the indirect effect of T2 nature contact in the pathway between FMATN and academic achievement was only significant for children with low levels of green space at NDVI 5 and NDVI 6. Green space at NDVI 7 was not found to influence the relationship between nature contact and school success.
The study, which was “the first to examine the mediating role of children’s nature contact in the relationship between FMATN and multidimensional school success,” revealed two key findings. First, positive FMATN was found to be associated with increased nature contact among children, and frequent nature contact was linked to lower learning anxiety, enhanced learning engagement, and better academic achievement. This finding confirms that FMATN may indirectly influence school success through the pathway of increased nature contact. Second, for children with less green space within 500–1000 m of home, higher levels of nature contact may support better academic achievement. Importantly, this finding suggests that intentional contact with nature may offset a lack of green space within walking distances that are typically accessible to school-age children and highlights “the role of nature contact as a compensatory resource.” Therefore, children living in less green neighborhoods may “need to actively seek out restorative natural experiences through purposeful engagement—such as visiting green parks or making handicrafts with plants—to compensate for the lack of residential green space.” Findings provide empirical support for both stress reduction theory and attention restoration theory. However, findings may not be generalizable to other contexts, such as rural settings. Nonetheless, the researchers conclude that “parents can encourage their children to participate in nature activities to alleviate stress, strengthen attentional regulation and obtain school success.”
The Bottom Line