Impact of disappearance of parents' natural experiences on the rate of natural experiences of children and grandchildren based on the results of the citizen questionnaire

Abstract

Experience of nature is one of the important factors for the healthy development of children. In this study, we conducted a large-scale questionnaire survey in Moriya City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and investigated the content and experience rate of children's natural experiences. Next, an analysis using a generalized linear model (GLM) was conducted to investigate how the home environment affects the experience rate of children's natural experiences. As a result, it was quantitatively shown that the influence of parents' gender, age, household income, etc. was small, and whether or not parents experienced the same natural experience in their childhood was the most important. In other words, it was found that parents who have experienced nature experience provide their children with opportunities to experience nature about 4 to 6.3 times more than parents who have not. These results indicate that there is a high need for teachers and interpreters to provide children with opportunities for quality nature experiences, and to provide children with environmental learning and a wide range of nature experiences is natural in the long run. It suggests that positive effects across generations are expected for the conservation and utilization of the environment.