The Association between Exposure to Nature and Children’s Happiness: The Diathesis-Stress or Differential Susceptibility Models?

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that both family environments and individual characteristics are associated with children’s happiness. However, relatively less research has explored whether and how natural environments are associated with children’s happiness. The current study examines whether the association between exposure to nature and children’s happiness is moderated by temperament (negative affectivity and effortful control), whether there is a gender difference in the moderating mechanisms, and whether the detected moderation supports the diathesis-stress or differential susceptibility models. Four hundred and ten children and one parent of each child participated in our study. We found that boys’ effortful control, not negative affectivity, moderated the association between exposure to nature and happiness. Furthermore, the results support the differential susceptibility model with boys’ low effortful control as a vulnerability factor. Specifically, for boys with lower effortful control, a lower exposure to nature was associated with lower happiness, and a higher exposure to nature was associated with higher happiness than in boys with higher effortful control. However, girls’ negative affectivity and effortful control did not moderate the association between exposure to nature and happiness. These findings suggest that the association between natural environments and children’s positive developmental outcomes varies with their effortful control and gender.