The Impact of Time Outdoors on Pro-Environmental Behaviours as a Function of Child and Teacher Connectedness to Nature

Abstract

Amongst children, spending time in nature plays an important role in establishing a desire to protect the environment, however may be dependent on the development of a connection towards the nature they spend time in. As a result of increased urbanisation, children are becoming increasingly distant from nature—both physically and cognitively. Therefore, future global conservation may be reliant on children forming meaningful connections to nature as a result of outdoor engagement. Given the importance of early role models, and extensive time spent in educational settings, teachers may also play an important part in developing this connection to nature in children. Using survey responses from 352 Australian primary school students, mediation analysis was used to determine if nature connection is an underlying mechanism in the relationship between spending time outdoors and pro-environmental behaviours. Further, within a sub-sample of 62 students and 44 teachers, we explored whether the level of teacher nature connectedness acts as a moderator of this mediation relationship. The results showed that developing a connection to nature partially mediated a relationship between spending time in nature and pro-environmental behaviours. Despite teacher nature connection predicting child connectedness, the smaller model was not able to replicate the initial mediation pathway. Early connection to nature as a consequence of time spent outdoors appears to play an important role in promoting pro-environmental behaviour in children. These results have important implications for global conservation, and suggest that the education setting may provide a convenient context for meaningful nature experiences to be fostered.