Research

Research into the importance of nature play, learning outdoors, risk-taking and children's mental and physical health and wellbeing forms the basis for the work we do.

Here you'll find the latest scientific research that shows the benefits of nature play for our children!

Use the Search function, or click on a keyword in Resource Categories to find research about a particular subject.

Nature Play WA's Research

Outdoor Learning, Outdoor Play and the School Environment Literature Review

By Katherine Healy | June 21, 2023 | Comments Off on Outdoor Learning, Outdoor Play and the School Environment Literature Review

Nature Play WA undertook a comprehensive literature review for the Education Department of WA that considers three critical elements to improving student experience and learning in school settings: outdoor learning, outdoor play and the school environment.

Digital Wellbeing Literature Review

By Katherine Healy | April 7, 2021 | Comments Off on Digital Wellbeing Literature Review

Nature Play WA, in conjunction with researchers from the Telethon Kids Institute, has created a ‘what you need to know’ guide for parents on the impacts of excessive screen time, highlighting new and relevant research in a clear and easy-to-understand manner.

Muddy Hands Australia Report

By Katherine Healy | February 11, 2021 | Comments Off on Muddy Hands Australia Report

This report, written to support Australia’s Outdoor Classroom Day, sets out not only a snapshot report on how much more playtime Australian children are getting compared to everyone else, but also an overview of why outdoor learning and play is so very important.

Curated Research

Vegetation diversity protects against childhood asthma: results from a large New Zealand birth cohort

Researchers assessed the association between the natural environment and asthma in 49,956 New Zealand children born in 1998 and followed up until 2016 using routinely collected data. Children who lived in greener areas, as measured by the normalized difference vegetation index, were less likely to be asthmatic.

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Green writing: the influence of natural spaces on primary students’ poetic writing in the UK and Australia

This paper draws on findings of comparative international research on students’ poetic writing about the natural environment in the context of the classroom and a naturalistic setting. The study involved 97, nine- to 10-year-olds in four classes: two classes were in an English primary school with their counterparts in a Western Australian primary school.

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Mothers and teenage daughters walking to health: using the behaviour change wheel to develop an intervention to improve adolescent girls’ physical activity

The majority of adolescent girls fail to meet public health guidelines for physical activity. Engaging mothers in the promotion of physical activity for their daughters may be an important strategy to facilitate behaviour change. The aim of this study was to use the behaviour change wheel (BCW) framework to design the components of an intervention to improve adolescent girls’ physical activity.

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The Association between Lifelong Greenspace Exposure and 3-Dimensional Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Barcelona Schoolchildren

Proponents of the biophilia hypothesis believe that contact with nature, including green spaces, has a crucial role in brain development in children. Currently, however, we are not aware of evidence linking such exposure with potential effects on brain structure.

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Embracing complexity: Rethinking the relation between play and learning: Comment on Lillard et al. (2013).

Lillard et al. (2013) concluded that pretend play is not causally related to child outcomes and charged that the field is subject to a play ethos, whereby research is tainted by a bias to find positive effects of play on child development. In this commentary, we embrace their call for a more solidly scientific approach to questions in this important area of study while offering 2 critiques of their analysis.

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An investigation into the effect of play-based instruction on the development of play skills and oral language.

The current study investigated the influence of a play-based curriculum on the development of pretend play skills and oral language in children attending their first year of formal schooling.

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Prospective associations between toddler televiewing and subsequent lifestyle habits in adolescence

Watching television is a common pastime for very young children. High exposure may negatively influence physical and mental health outcomes. Not much is known about how early exposure relates to lifestyle choices in adolescence.

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Landscapes for play: Effects of an intervention to promote nature-based risky play in early childhood centres

The outdoor space at childcare centres can be many preschoolers’ primary experience of outdoor play. Trends prioritizing risk reduction have diminished access to nature and risky play. We examined the effects of an intervention to increase opportunities for nature and risky play in the outdoor play environments of two childcare centres using a repeated measures mixed methods design.

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The role of physical activity enjoyment in the pathways from the social and physical environments to physical activity of early adolescent girls

The findings of this study identified several direct effects of the social and physical environment on PA enjoyment that can begin to inform environmental-level strategies for increasing PA enjoyment among early adolescent girls.

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The Association Between Natural Environments and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents Living in the United States

Exposure to nature and natural environments may be beneficial for mental health; however, most population-based studies have been conducted among adults whereas few have focused on adolescents. Researchers aimed to investigate the relationship between both greenness (vegetation) and blue space (water), and depressive symptoms among teenagers in the United States.

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