Four out of five UK children 'not connected to nature'

Research from the RSPB measures the extent to which children are in touch with the natural world

Adam Vaughan theguardian.com 16 Oct 13;

Two young boys are putting the finishing touches to their twig-lined den, next to a welly-clad girl who has discovered a toad hiding by a tree. Several children are busy fishing for worms, while others are scooping up bird feathers as part of their treasure hunt.

Yet these children, playing at a "forest school" in a south-east London park, are an endangered species, according to the first ever national measurement of the extent to which children are in touch with the natural world. The three-year research project by the RSPB, published on Wednesday, shows that according to the conservation group's scoring system, four out of five children in the UK are not adequately "connected to nature".

The study, which saw 1,200 children aged 8-12 years questioned on how strongly they agreed or disagreed with 16 statements such as "I enjoy touching animals and plants", "being outdoors makes me happy" and "humans are part of the natural world", suggests that girls have a better connection with nature than boys. It also found children in London had a stronger connection than those in Wales.

The study follows a major stock-take of the state of Britain's nature, published in May, which found that the majority of UK species are declining, and one in three have halved in number in the past five decades. Conservationists linked the decline in wildlife to the disconnect between children and the natural world. "Nature is in trouble, and children's connection to nature is closely linked to this," said Dr Mike Clarke, the RSPB's chief executive.

He added: "This report is groundbreaking stuff. Millions of people are increasingly worried that today's children have less contact with nature than ever before, but until now there has been no robust scientific attempt to measure and track connection to nature among children in the UK, which means the problem hasn't been given the attention it deserves."

Hugh Dames, who runs the forest school in Mayow park in Lewisham, was not too surprised by the findings. "I've had children who hated to get their hands dirty, who are frightened by wood lice. But by the end of just one session, they're happily playing in the mud, looking for worms and creepy crawlies."

Dames said he had been inspired by his previous work with schools and thinking about what he wanted to teach his daughter upon becoming a father 18 months ago. "If they [children] understand nature, they will value it and will take more care of it when they get older. If you're not engaged with it, you're not going to feel any need to safeguard it. I think outdoor learning is the only way to do that," he said.

The RSPB team worked with researchers at the University of Essex to devise a meaningful way of defining a connection to nature, concluding in the report that it was "enjoyment of nature; having empathy for creatures; having a sense of oneness with nature; and having a sense of responsibility for the environment."

Based on the polling, they then ranked a child's connection to nature on a scale of the lowest, -2, to the highest, +2, and considered 1.5 a "realistic and achievable" target based on children who visit RSPB nature reserves. The percentage of UK children over the 1.5 score was 21%, while girls were at 27% compared to boys at 16%. Scotland had the highest percentage over 1.5, at 27%, falling to 25% in Northern Ireland, 24% in London, 21% in England and 13% in Wales.

Suzanne Welch, education manager at the RSPB, said she could only speculate on the reasons behind the surprising finding that Welsh children were less connected than those in London. "Might it be that there are lot of accessible green spaces in London? Children in the countryside can be quite isolated with small local roads and no pavements. Access might be quite difficult in rural areas." She said that more work was needed to find out why, but she said it showed "just being in the countryside doesn't make you connected to nature."

The issue will be back in the spotlight next week, with the premiere of Project Wild Thing, a film exploring why children spend less time playing outdoors and interacting with nature. David Bond, the film's director, and a father of a six-year-old girl and four-year-old boy, said the RSPB report's findings sounded "absolutely spot on" from his work making the film, which included a visit to Eltham school, in London, where most of the children he spoke to had "other priorities" than the outdoors.

"What's important about that study to me is not the percentage but that finally it's being measured, and according to this measurement system we have a problem," he told the Guardian. "And I've got a bad feeling in a year's time it will get worse." He cited what he called well-founded fears from parents over traffic and misplaced fears over "stranger danger" as two of the culprits. Children were spending too much time on screens, such as TVs and iPads, he said, but cautioned "technology is not really a problem in itself. It's a much more fundamental commercialisation of childhood."

The RSPB said its polling created a baseline which it hopes to use to measure how children's connection to nature changes in the future. The polling was done face-to-face by TNS for 1,088 British children aged 8-12 years old, and by Ipsos Mori for 112 children of the same age in Northern Ireland.

Just one in five children connected to nature, says study
Matt McGrath BBC News 16 Oct 13;

Large numbers of children in Britain are missing out on the natural world, a study from the RSPB suggests.

The three-year project found that only 21% of children aged 8-12 were "connected to nature".

Girls were much more likely than boys to be exposed to the great outdoors, while children in Wales had the lowest score across the UK.

The RSPB says that a perception among some adults that nature is dangerous or dirty could be holding children back.

There has been an increasing amount of research in recent years underlining the lack of contact and experience with nature among modern children.

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In some cases it is perceived as a dirty or unsafe thing, and that's an attitude that won't help a young person climb a tree”

Sue Armstrong-Brown
RSPB
Some have argued that this is having a negative impact on their health, education and behaviour.

In 2012, the National Trust published a report on the phenomenon of "nature deficit disorder", though it is not recognised as a medical condition.

Gender difference
The RSPB says its new study is the first to quantify the scale of British children's exposure, or lack of it, to the natural world.

They came up with a definition of what "connected to nature" actually means and then developed a questionnaire with 16 statements designed to assess the level of connection among children.

Some 1,200 children from across the UK were asked to agree or disagree with these statements. Only 21% of children in the UK had a level of connection with wildlife and the natural world that the RSPB believes should be realistic and achievable for all youngsters.

This "realistic and achievable" value is based on the average scores of children visiting RSPB sites or who are junior members of the organisation.

One interesting finding was the gender difference. While 27% of girls were at or above the "realistic and achievable" target, only 16% of boys were at the same level.

"We need to understand these differences," Sue Armstrong-Brown, head of conservation at the charity, told BBC News.

"Whether boys and girls are scoring differently on different questions, are girls more empathetic to nature than boys for instance? We need to analyse the data to find that out."

The report also highlighted significant regional differences. Only 13% of children in Wales achieved the basic level of exposure, compared with almost twice this number in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Urban beats rural
The average score for London was higher than the rest of England. Overall urban children had a slightly higher connection than those living in rural areas.

According to Sue Armstrong-Brown, the attitudes of adults may be having a significant effect on children.

"There is definitely an attitude out there, in some cases, that nature is not perceived as interesting or engaging. In some cases it is perceived as a dirty or unsafe thing, and that's an attitude that won't help a young person climb a tree."

The RSPB hopes that its study will be taken up by government as one of the indicators on the state of children's wellbeing.

Sue Armstrong-Brown believes that improving the natural connection for children is not only good for the youngsters, it is crucial for the future of nature conservation in this country.

"If we can grow a generation of children that have a connection to nature and do feel a sense of oneness with it, we then have the force for the future that can save nature and stop us living in a world where nature is declining," she said.