Nature and the Life Course: Pathways from Childhood Nature Experiences to Adult Environmentalism

This study suggested that childhood participation with nature may set an individual on a trajectory toward adult environmentalism. Specifically, childhood participation in “wild” nature such as hiking or playing in the woods, camping, and hunting or fishing, as well as participation with “domesticated” nature such as picking flowers or produce, planting trees or seeds, and caring for plants in childhood have a positive relationship to adult environmental attitudes. “Wild nature” participation is also positively associated with environmental behaviors while “domesticated nature” experiences are marginally related to environmental behaviors.

This report found that while children living in the United States today reportedly spend, on average, 30 minutes of unstructured time outdoors each week. Increasingly, children spend time indoors—watching television, playing video games, and using computers. In fact, while children age 3 to 12 spend 1 percent of their time outdoors, they spend 27 percent of their time watching television (Hofferth and Sandberg 2000). In addition to its likely contributions to epidemics of childhood inactivity and obesity (Luepker 1999; Sturm 2005) and possibly to rates of Attention Deficit Disorder (Kuo and Faber Taylor 2004), youth spending so little time outside may also lead to a dwindling knowledge about biodiversity (Chipeniuk 1995) and, as this study suggests, less pro-environmental attitudes and reduced participation in environmentally friendly behaviors as adults. Encouraging children to become engaged with the natural world, preserving habitats where they can do so, and creating programs and opportunities for this to occur may be critical to the future of healthy children, healthy adults, and a healthy planet.   To read the full report, click here.