What are the drivers of and barriers to children’s direct experiences of nature?

Abstract

In our increasingly urbanised world, children are becoming disconnected from the natural world. This progressive separation of humans from nature, “extinction of experience,” is viewed both as a major public health issue and as one of the fundamental obstacles to halting global biodiversity loss. Thus, it has become increasingly important to understand what drives and limits children’s direct experiences of nature. We administered a large-scale questionnaire to 5801 children from 45 elementary schools in Tochigi, central Japan. Children were asked to provide information on frequency of nature experiences, extent of nature relatedness, time pressure, inclination towards screen-based media, and their family members’ attitudes towards nature-based activities (family members’ nature orientation). We also calculated the proportion of urbanised areas within a 1-km radius of each school. Results showed that the frequency of children’s nature experiences was significantly positively associated with individual nature relatedness and family members’ nature orientation; time pressure and inclination towards screen-based media were not significantly negatively related to children’s frequency of nature experiences. Degree of urbanisation had significant negative influences on the frequency of direct experiences of nature. Male children participated in nature-based activities more frequently. Overall, our study demonstrates that children’s direct engagement with neighbourhood nature is shaped by multiple opportunity- and orientation-related factors, which has important policy implications as it implies that there can be no simple, straightforward way to promote children’s nature experiences. Thus, to minimise the ongoing extinction of experience, a variety of different and complementary approaches must be taken.