‘I might know when I'm an adult’: making sense of children's relationships with nature

Abstract

This paper reports subjective experiences in nature of 5 children aged 6–10 years collected during a 5-day camp in a botanical garden. Creative expressive visual methods and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Inductive analysis produced the follow themes: children being positioned to take care of nature and to be taken care of by nature, as well as nature needing protection from children and children needing protection from nature. The roles of gatekeepers in mediating attraction to and repulsion from nature were also highlighted. We examine these in the context of socio-cultural constraints and invitations that children experience in developing these relationships. These themes are discussed using a theoretical framework that blends Vygotsky's socio-cultural development theory with Gibson's theory of affordances. Findings contribute to a more integrated understanding of how ecological psychology and social psychology can inform our understanding of children's relationships with nature; in particular, how children's experiences with nature are mediated by socio-cultural factors. By adding to our understanding of how children develop relationships with nature, practitioners can more effectively facilitate experiences that encourage pro-environmental and stewardship attitudes and behaviors as well as result in positive health and development outcomes for children. This paper contributes to the children's geographies literature by strengthening the theoretical foundation from which geographers approach child–nature relationships.