Parental factors affecting children's nature connectedness

Abstract

Although the role of children's nature connectedness and its associated influencing factors have been studied to some extent, more studies have been concentrated in Western developed countries and rarely addressed in developing countries, especially China. Moreover, there are few studies that specifically explore parental-level influences on children's nature connectedness. Through a one-to-one bundle survey of 610 parent-child pairs in China, we explored the influence of parental childhood nature experiences, parental attitudes towards children's outdoor nature activities, parental nature connectedness and socio-demographic characteristics on children's nature connectedness. It was found that children's nature connectedness showed no significant difference between different family locations (urban and rural areas), family fertility status (only one child and more than one child), sex of children (male and female); parental economic status, parental education level, and parental nature connectedness, which were found to be influential in previous studies, also showed no correlation with children's nature connectedness in this study; parental childhood nature experiences and positive attitudes toward children's outdoor nature activities both had a positive effect on children's nature connectedness, with parental childhood nature experiences having a more significant effect, but parental negative attitudes toward children's outdoor nature activities showed a significant negative effect. Moreover, the generalized regression model further validated that parental positive attitudes towards children's outdoor nature activities were mediating variables that influenced children's nature connectedness through parental childhood nature experiences. Therefore, the article finally also suggests relevant programs for the community to enhance children's nature connectedness, and emphasizes the need to enhance modern children's nature experiences based on the inter-generational influence of parental childhood nature experiences on children's nature nnectedness.