Activities in nature: how frequent is the contact of contemporary children with the natural world?

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Almeida, António
Data de Publicação: 2019
Outros Autores: Rato, Valter, Dabaja, Ziad F.
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/11106
Resumo: The progressive process of industrialization occurring in the world in the last 200 years has increased the urban population. One of its consequences has been the gradual detachment from nature, which negatively affects children’s development. At the same time, several authors state that children play essentially indoors, and outdoor activities are declining not only in nature places but also in urban areas, due to several reasons. The present study aims to check how frequently a myriad of several outdoor activities are performed by a group of 153 urban children, 87 boys and 70 girls, from 6 state primary schools with different social backgrounds (low to high socio-economic status) from the Lisbon area. Differences between boys and girls were also analysed. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered containing demographic-related items, such as sex, age and school, and the following 11 statements pertaining to different outdoor activities: picking up wild fruits; gardening; climbing trees; catching birds in traps; collecting rocks, minerals and fossils; tracking; visiting farms, zoos and other thematic parks; practising outdoor sports; playing in forested areas; going hunting or fishing with friends and relatives; rappelling and other extreme sports. Children had to select the frequency of their performing of each activity on a four-point scale. A total score for the 11 activities was also calculated. The results show that almost all activities have never or rarely been done by the participants, and only outdoor sports are practised more often (sometimes). Boys and girls statistically significant differences were only for practising outdoor sports and for hunting and fishing with friends and relatives, favouring boys. But the frequency of this latter activity was very low in both genders. The present study confirmed children’s prevalent disconnection with nature alongside the decline in performing different outdoor activities, showing that this trend is at least affecting several western countries. Since the situation is impoverishing children’s development and affecting their knowledge and awareness about the importance of the natural world, implications for parents, teachers and policy makers are discussed to try to invert the present trend.
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spelling Activities in nature: how frequent is the contact of contemporary children with the natural world?Primary childrenContact with natureOutdoor activitiesIPL/2018/ANIMALIS_ESELxThe progressive process of industrialization occurring in the world in the last 200 years has increased the urban population. One of its consequences has been the gradual detachment from nature, which negatively affects children’s development. At the same time, several authors state that children play essentially indoors, and outdoor activities are declining not only in nature places but also in urban areas, due to several reasons. The present study aims to check how frequently a myriad of several outdoor activities are performed by a group of 153 urban children, 87 boys and 70 girls, from 6 state primary schools with different social backgrounds (low to high socio-economic status) from the Lisbon area. Differences between boys and girls were also analysed. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered containing demographic-related items, such as sex, age and school, and the following 11 statements pertaining to different outdoor activities: picking up wild fruits; gardening; climbing trees; catching birds in traps; collecting rocks, minerals and fossils; tracking; visiting farms, zoos and other thematic parks; practising outdoor sports; playing in forested areas; going hunting or fishing with friends and relatives; rappelling and other extreme sports. Children had to select the frequency of their performing of each activity on a four-point scale. A total score for the 11 activities was also calculated. The results show that almost all activities have never or rarely been done by the participants, and only outdoor sports are practised more often (sometimes). Boys and girls statistically significant differences were only for practising outdoor sports and for hunting and fishing with friends and relatives, favouring boys. But the frequency of this latter activity was very low in both genders. The present study confirmed children’s prevalent disconnection with nature alongside the decline in performing different outdoor activities, showing that this trend is at least affecting several western countries. Since the situation is impoverishing children’s development and affecting their knowledge and awareness about the importance of the natural world, implications for parents, teachers and policy makers are discussed to try to invert the present trend.RCIPLAlmeida, AntónioRato, ValterDabaja, Ziad F.2020-02-19T09:44:50Z20192019-01-01T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/11106eng10.21125/iceri.2019.06722340-1095info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2023-08-03T10:01:58Zoai:repositorio.ipl.pt:10400.21/11106Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T20:19:25.628778Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Activities in nature: how frequent is the contact of contemporary children with the natural world?
title Activities in nature: how frequent is the contact of contemporary children with the natural world?
spellingShingle Activities in nature: how frequent is the contact of contemporary children with the natural world?
Almeida, António
Primary children
Contact with nature
Outdoor activities
IPL/2018/ANIMALIS_ESELx
title_short Activities in nature: how frequent is the contact of contemporary children with the natural world?
title_full Activities in nature: how frequent is the contact of contemporary children with the natural world?
title_fullStr Activities in nature: how frequent is the contact of contemporary children with the natural world?
title_full_unstemmed Activities in nature: how frequent is the contact of contemporary children with the natural world?
title_sort Activities in nature: how frequent is the contact of contemporary children with the natural world?
author Almeida, António
author_facet Almeida, António
Rato, Valter
Dabaja, Ziad F.
author_role author
author2 Rato, Valter
Dabaja, Ziad F.
author2_role author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv RCIPL
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Almeida, António
Rato, Valter
Dabaja, Ziad F.
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv Primary children
Contact with nature
Outdoor activities
IPL/2018/ANIMALIS_ESELx
topic Primary children
Contact with nature
Outdoor activities
IPL/2018/ANIMALIS_ESELx
description The progressive process of industrialization occurring in the world in the last 200 years has increased the urban population. One of its consequences has been the gradual detachment from nature, which negatively affects children’s development. At the same time, several authors state that children play essentially indoors, and outdoor activities are declining not only in nature places but also in urban areas, due to several reasons. The present study aims to check how frequently a myriad of several outdoor activities are performed by a group of 153 urban children, 87 boys and 70 girls, from 6 state primary schools with different social backgrounds (low to high socio-economic status) from the Lisbon area. Differences between boys and girls were also analysed. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered containing demographic-related items, such as sex, age and school, and the following 11 statements pertaining to different outdoor activities: picking up wild fruits; gardening; climbing trees; catching birds in traps; collecting rocks, minerals and fossils; tracking; visiting farms, zoos and other thematic parks; practising outdoor sports; playing in forested areas; going hunting or fishing with friends and relatives; rappelling and other extreme sports. Children had to select the frequency of their performing of each activity on a four-point scale. A total score for the 11 activities was also calculated. The results show that almost all activities have never or rarely been done by the participants, and only outdoor sports are practised more often (sometimes). Boys and girls statistically significant differences were only for practising outdoor sports and for hunting and fishing with friends and relatives, favouring boys. But the frequency of this latter activity was very low in both genders. The present study confirmed children’s prevalent disconnection with nature alongside the decline in performing different outdoor activities, showing that this trend is at least affecting several western countries. Since the situation is impoverishing children’s development and affecting their knowledge and awareness about the importance of the natural world, implications for parents, teachers and policy makers are discussed to try to invert the present trend.
publishDate 2019
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2019
2019-01-01T00:00:00Z
2020-02-19T09:44:50Z
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url http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/11106
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dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv 10.21125/iceri.2019.0672
2340-1095
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