Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning

Publication Date

2024

Keywords

Nature play, families, outdoor play, children and biodiversity

Abstract

In the U.S. and elsewhere, the nature play and outdoor time that is important to childhood development is not accessible to many. Children’s interactions with elements of nature, including biodiversity, are important. This study explored community-based affordances, using a nature play continuum, to examine the wildness in specific space types. To investigate children’s access and uncover how they interacted with nature in specific types of outdoor spaces, two iterations of household surveys for 489 families were used in the study. Underlying associations between types of outdoor space and children’s access were found. Direct and intentional interactions with biodiversity were related to specific types of outdoor play space. Given access, children will seek out interactions with biodiversity. Given that patterns exist between how families access both private and community outdoor spaces, community planning that designs for access to less available types of natural settings within more available types is suggested.

Funding Source

This study was funded by the Many Futures Foundation. This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Taylor & Francis.

Comments

First published in Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning: https://doi.org/10.1080/14729679.2024.2420316

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

DOI

10.1080/14729679.2024.2420316

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