The aim of the study was to determine if city children feel they can connect with nature and what forms this connection takes. The study involved 187 children (aged 9 – 11) living in three New Zealand cities.
Participating children were asked to share their perceptions and experiences about connecting with nature in their urban environment. The data collection process included drawings, interviews, and Geographic Information Mapping (GIS) exercises. Each child was asked to draw a personal map to include their home, school, places they went, people they knew, and any nature areas they were familiar with. The maps were used as conversation prompts for the one-on-one interviews with the children. Interview questions focused on the children's lives, their family background, independent mobility, family contact, activities with nature and their own understandings and views of nature. For the GIS exercise, each child made their own computer-based personal nature map, indicating places they used for play, socializing, shopping, educational purposes, cultural activities, or places they felt were important to them.
Findings from this study are consistent with other research indicating that children's access to nature is limited by independent mobility constraints. Most of the children in this study, however, did not consider themselves to be nature-deficient or deprived. While some of the participants think there's not enough nature in their living environment, they still made connections with nature. Their enthusiasm for natural connections was clearly evident in both their interview responses and their nature maps.
Findings also indicated some disparities in children's access to natural environments, in that the public greenspaces most frequently used by children in low-income areas tended to be the least biodiverse. While there were areas in their neighborhood with more biodiversity, children from lower socio-economic status families were more likely to access the grass-dominated sites closest to their homes.
Based on the findings of this study, the researchers conclude that for most children, cities can offer a variety of positive natural opportunities but that biodiversity enhancement is called for in lower socio-economic neighborhoods. They caution, however, that such enhancement should not compromise the functionality and the ability of children to use these sites. Enhancing biodiversity, they note, will make a city more child-friendly only if that biodiversity is accessible and meaningful to the children living there.
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