The income and education levels of a child's environment determine their relationship to nature, not whether they live in a city or the countryside. This is the finding of a new study conducted by researchers at Lund University, Sweden. The results run counter to the assumption that growing up in the countryside automatically increases our connection to nature, and yet the study also shows that nature close to home increases children's well-being.
There is a general concern that, with urbanisation, people have lost contact with nature. According to research, less contact means lower engagement with nature and poorer health outcomes as people spend less time outdoors. How we might strengthen or rediscover our connection to nature is therefore a topical question.
This is particularly important for children, partly because of the impact on their health, but also because it is in childhood that our relationships with nature are formed. The researchers wanted to study the relationships urban and rural schoolchildren have to nature and whether these vary with socioeconomic status. They also wanted to look into whether feeding birds could serve as a point of contact with wildlife, potentially strengthening children's knowledge of and feeling for nature, and by extension, improving their sense of well-being.
" Contrary to expectations, we have shown that children's relationships with nature are not determined by whether they grow up in the countryside or in the city. Instead, socioec.