Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool Children in Stockholm

Abstract

Do nature-deficit routines undermine affinity with the biosphere? We assessed social-ecological features in Stockholm that afford nature experiences and analyzed the accessibility of these natural areas to preschools. We then selected preschools with contrasting accessibilities. The nature routines resulting from differing outdoor possibilities in preschool life were investigated in relation to children's affinity with the biosphere. Preschools with routines closer to nature have children who are more empathetic and concerned for non-human life forms, and more cognitively aware of human-nature interdependence. We conclude that, nature-rich routines in cities significantly correlate with higher children's ability to develop affinity with the biosphere.

Full text

Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool Children in
Stockholm
Author(s): Giusti Matteo, Barthel Stephan and Marcus Lars
Source:
Children, Youth and Environments,
Vol. 24, No. 3, Special Section on Greening Early
Childhood Education (2014), pp. 16-42
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 2014 Children, Youth and Environments
Children, Youth and Environments 24(3), 2014
Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere:
A Case Study of Preschool Children in Stockholm
Giusti Matteo
Stockholm Resilience Centre
Stockholm University
Barthel Stephan
Institute of Urban History and Stockholm Resilience Centre
Stockholm University
Marcus Lars
School of Architecture and the Built Environment
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Citation: Matteo, Giusti, Barthel Stephan and Marcus Lars (2014). “Nature
Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool Children in
Stockholm.” Children, Youth and Environments 24(3): 16-42. Retrieved [date]
from: http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=chilyoutenvi.
Abstract
Do nature-deficit routines undermine affinity with the biosphere? We assessed
social-ecological features in Stockholm that afford nature experiences and analyzed
the accessibility of these natural areas to preschools. We then selected preschools
with contrasting accessibilities. The nature routines resulting from differing outdoor
possibilities in preschool life were investigated in relation to children’s affinity with
the biosphere. Preschools with routines closer to nature have children who are more
empathetic and concerned for non-human life forms, and more cognitively aware of
human-nature interdependence. We conclude that, nature-rich routines in cities
significantly correlate with higher children’s ability to develop affinity with the
biosphere.
Keywords: nature routine, affinity with the biosphere, extinction of experience,
preschool children, urban design
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 17
Connection with the Biosphere and Urban Routines
The spatial design of a city is a leading factor in how urban dwellers relate to the
physical landscape. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, anthropocentric
forces have progressively separated urban systems from their surrounding natural
environments (Steffen, Crutzen and McNeill 2007; Steffen et al. 2011). The
commodities that a modern city requires are now not only drawn from the adjacent
regional landscape, but increasingly from the furthest reaches of the planet (Folke
et al. 1997; Barthel et al. 2005; Grimm et al. 2008; Deutsch 2004). While
historically cities were designed to fruitfully co-exist with local and regional
ecosystems, for instance to enable urban agriculture or to benefit from local
sources of waterpower (Mumford 1961; Barthel and Isendahl 2013), today’s urban
dynamics conceal from urban dwellers both presence and importance of the
ecological life-support systems. The socio-technical experience of the urban
landscape has left the vast majority of urban citizens systematically deprived of in
situ nature experiences, especially on a daily basis. Such urban routines can be said
to be affected by an “extinction of nature experiences,” which is often negatively
associated with people’s engagement in nature conservation (Miller 2005; Samways
2007; Stokes 2006). The lack of personal nature experiences seems to initiate a
self-reinforcing cycle of disaffection and carelessness for the environment with
direct implications for the emergence of sustainable lifestyles (Pyle 1993). On a
larger scale, such estrangement from the biosphere is considered a systematic
barrier for a decisive shift of civil society towards sustainable development (Folke et
al. 2011; Folke, Holling and Perrings 1996).
On the other hand, the processes that lead someone to engage in environmental
stewardship are found in the early-life establishment of positive affective and
cognitive assumptions towards nature (Stern 2000; Schultz 2000; Dunlap et al.
2000; Stern, Dietz and Kalof 1993; Kals, Schumacher and Montada 1999).
However, the research that investigates the emergence of positive environmental
attitudes relies mostly on retrospective interviews (Chawla 1999) and surveys
(Ewert, Place and Sibthorp 2005; Wells and Evans 2003). Such methodology
highlights how conscious attributes of the human mind shape one’s attitude
towards the environment, but implicitly neglects the unconscious mind. Hence, only
memories of nature experiences that are available to consciousness are taken into
consideration. However, nature experiences that are not available for memory
retrieval, but are the background of one’s routine, may have great significance on
forming the human appreciation of nature. Indeed, the impact of unconscious
contextual factors in shaping one’s mindset is evident in many other aspects of
human life, from parents’ role in children’s development to the function that
advertising plays in society for adults.
In neural processes, persistent experiences play a leading role in how
environmental perceptions come to constitute one’s internal representation of
reality. In academia, the significance of consistent stimuli to shape one’s identity is
recognized, for instance, in the learning process of psychological conditioning, and
increasingly in biological and cognitive neurosciences. Indeed, the persistent
exposure to the same neurological stimulus physically nurtures the same neural
networks (Maletic-Savatic, Malinow and Svoboda 1999). It follows that, persistent
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 18
access to nature might be closely related to the development of a mindset more
neurologically familiar and accustomed with the biosphere. For instance, the
impossibility to interact with ecological dynamics over a long period of time might
nurture the blind assumption that humankind is a detached self-regulating body
separate from the biosphere. The degree to which the human-nature separation is
embedded in one’s mindset is likely to influence one’s cognitive decision-making
process over issues of environmental concern. A persistent and unconscious
deficiency in first-hand nature experiences might therefore be a key barrier for the
initiation of future sustainable practices.
In this study, we intend to complement previous research and shed light on how
long-lasting nature experiences, i.e. nature routines, embedded in the
configurations of urban landscapes relate to the development of an affiliation with
the biosphere. To reveal the relevance of contextual factors in this process the
methodology is carefully designed to address persistency rather than intensity of
nature interactions. First, we utilize spatial accessibility to natural environments as
a medium for the assessment of nature routines. We perform a geographical
evaluation of how nature experiences are distributed in the landscape of our study
area, i.e. the municipality of Stockholm, and evaluate how frequently they are used
for outdoor activities in preschools. Second, we evaluate if differing nature
experiences over four years of preschool life relate to different affinity with the
biosphere in 5-year-old children. In summary, we analyze children’s emotional and
cognitive affinity with the biosphere in relation to nature-rich and nature-deficit
routines.
Research Question and Hypothesis
As humans generally “learn to love what has become familiar” (Orr 2002), or
cannot learn to love what has not become familiar, we assume that the nature-
deficit routines enforced by modern urban landscapes undermine humans’ capacity
to be familiar and eventually affiliate with the biosphere. This article explores
whether individuals’ unconscious appreciation of nature, or one’s degree of
identification with nature, is influenced by a consistent loss of contact with nature
determined by the spatial features of the urban environment. We examine how
consistent access to nature experiences in Stockholm, Sweden affects the
development of emotional, cognitive, and attitudinal affinity with the biosphere. The
research focuses on childhood, when nature experiences are considered to be most
formative (Kahn, Jr. and Kellert 2002; Chawla 1998; 1999; Louv 2005), and on the
urban landscape, where nature experiences are likely to be the most homogeneous
in type and their accessibility likely to be unevenly distributed in the landscape.
The research analyzes the extinction of nature experiences in the surroundings of
urban preschools in Stockholm and relates it to the degree of affinity with the
biosphere that 5-year-old children have developed during four years. Children
during this period spend large amounts of their waking time in preschools (on
average from 8am to 3pm) some of which (14 hours/week) occur outside the gates
of the preschool. The design of preschools itself has already been acknowledged to
be of importance for the children’s indoor learning experience (Gandini 1993), but
does the design of urban outdoors influence children’s understanding of the
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 19
biosphere? More specifically, does the extinction of nature experiences in urban
areas correlate with reduced affinity with the biosphere in preschool children? We
hypothesize that children who have persistent access to nature experiences over a
period of four years, because their preschool is located in a “greener” area, develop
stronger affinity with the biosphere than those who have limited nature experiences
available in the surroundings of their preschool. We expect the results to indicate a
relationship between the spatial configuration of urban nature in Stockholm and the
degree to which children learn to affiliate with the biosphere.
Theoretical and Methodological Design
The methodological approach is constituted of three interrelated steps; 1)
classification and mapping of nature experiences using pre-existing geographical
data, 2) analysis of preschool accessibility and frequency of use of such nature
experiences, and 3) analysis of affinity with the biosphere in preschool children with
differing accessibility to nature experiences.
Analysis of Spatial Accessibility to Nature Experiences
In order to remain consistent with previous studies in this field, a “nature
experience” is defined here as a human interaction with non-human species and
natural environments (Finch 2008; Miller 2005; Pyle 1993; Samways 2007).
However, we consider the general distinction between “human-made” and “natural”
areas arbitrary because, especially in urban and peri-urban landscapes, there often
is a long history of human land use that has shaped most natural environments
(Barthel, Crumley and Svedin 2013; Berkes, Colding and Folke 2000; Crumley
1994). We acknowledge that the biophysical attributes of the landscape that are
considered “natural” are to some extent embedded in the local cultural system that
defines the meaning of what is “natural” (Geertz 1973). Biophysical and cultural
properties are therefore at the core of this study in both the geographical
classification of natural experiences and in the analysis of spatial accessibility. We
map where experiences of nature are present in the city of Stockholm by
synthesizing both social and ecological properties of the urban landscape. The
overall analysis adopts the well-established theoretical and methodological
approach of space syntax that pioneered the convergence of spatial analysis and
spatial cognition (Dalton, Hölscher and Turner 2012; Peponis, Zimring and Choi
1990; Hillier and Hanson 1984; Hillier 1996). Today, this approach has an
extensive body of documented research detailing how cognitive understanding of
the environment can establish behavioral patterns (Koch, Marcus and Steen 2009;
Greene, Reyes and Castro 2012). Our spatial analysis utilizes two methodological
elements of space syntax to assess the distribution of nature experiences in the
municipality of Stockholm: the sociotope map, and the attraction accessibility
algorithm.
The sociotope map categorizes geographical areas of the Stockholm municipality
into sociotopes (Sociotophandboken 2003). Sociotopes are defined and classified
by triangulation of expert evaluation, expert observation and public dialogue, and
are not mutually exclusive (Ståhle 2006). Hence, sociotopes of “nature” are
delimited topographical areas in Stockholm that synthesize how natural properties
in the landscape are perceived and used by the local civil society (Ståhle 2006). We
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 20
identify the existence of many sociotopes of “nature” and we categorize them in
four different “nature experiences”: natural recreation, natural beauty, wilderness,
and rurality (Table 1).
Table 1. Sociotopes categorized in four nature experiences
Nature
experience
Recreation
Natural beauty
Wilderness
Rurality
Sociotopes
of “nature”
Playing in water
Playing in nature
Picnicking
Riding
Flower display
Contact with
water bodies
Green oases
Land formations
Panoramas
Forest feeling
Wild nature
Peacefulness
Domesticated
animals present
Small-scale
cultivation
Farmer’s market
The accessibility of the preschools to the categorized nature experiences is analyzed
using the attraction accessibility algorithm from the locations of the preschools. This
analytical tool takes into account the walking distances measured on the street
networks, as well as the required amount of changes in direction—i.e., perceived
distances (Ståhle, Marcus and Karlström 2005). The accessibility analysis combines
the physical effort, measured as number of meters, and the mental distance,
measured as number of changes in direction, inherent in distances (Hillier 2003).
This approach has proven more successful in predicting both pedestrian and
vehicular movement than regular metric measures of distance (Hillier et al. 1993;
Hillier and Iida 2005).
Our analysis thus begins with an assessment of nature activities, such as playing
with water, having a picnic in the park, being in a peaceful environment, having the
feeling of being in a forest, or being in contact with domesticated animals, that are
accessible in preschool surroundings. This information is then combined with how
frequently the available nature experiences are included in the outdoor curricula of
preschools. By joining the classification of urban green areas in the sociotope map
with our accessibility analysis using GIS, we consider our analysis to be an accurate
assessment of how much nature experiences are available to preschool for outdoor
activities. It is important to notice that, in line with the intention of the study, the
geographical assessment of nature experiences performed here does not rely on
self-reported questionnaires, and therefore does not rely on the participants’ ability
to recall memories and recognize which ones have been the most formative. This
study identifies the degree of nature experiences occurring over a long period of
time using availability, accessibility and frequency of use of geographical areas that
have social-ecological attributes of nature.
Analysis of Affinity with the Biosphere
Affinity with the biosphere is analyzed with measures similar to several other
empirical studies (Clayton 2003; Mayer and Frantz 2004; Nisbet, Zelenski and
Murphy 2008; Schultz 2002; Stern 2000). The emotional components of this
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 21
relationship are included in the assessment to create a holistic depiction of the
participant’s affiliation with nature (Kals, Schumacher and Montada 1999).
However, the methods we apply have been adapted from the aforementioned
empirical studies to better suit the age of the participants. Biospheric, altruistic, and
egoistic values associated with the development of environmental attitudes and
concern, as in the Value-Belief-Norm model (Stern, Dietz and Kalof 1993; Stern
and Dietz 1994), could not be measured because such values are not yet developed
for this age group (Kellert 2002; Bronfenbrenner 1986). We adapt structural-
developmental methods (Kahn, Jr. 1999) that were originally designed to address
children’s conception of the world (Piaget 1960) and that have been successfully
employed in a multitude of studies examining children’s environmental morality
(Kahn, Jr. et al. 2008; Kahn, Jr. and Friedman 1995; Howe, Kahn, Jr. and Friedman
1996). We intentionally avoid the use of self-reporting questionnaires because the
sense of connectedness with nature is regarded as a zero-order belief, i.e. a
primitive belief of which we are consciously unaware, and therefore it cannot be
verbalized, especially by 5-year-old children (Schultz et al. 2004). Children are
indeed incapable of deep self-exploration and have very limited capacity to express
the complexity of their emotions and beliefs. Hence, we used previously employed
image-based techniques (Bryant 1982; Feshbach 1975; Pell and Jarvis 2001; Borke
1973) to design an assessment that non-verbally evaluates affinity with the
biosphere, similar to the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) (Mayer and Frantz
2004), the Nature Relatedness Scale (NR) (Nisbet, Zelenski and Murphy 2008), and
the connection to nature index (Cheng and Monroe 2010; Evans et al. 2007).
All tasks that children are asked to perform in the assessment had been tested in
two previous pilot studies to be suitable for the cognitive abilities of children of five
years of age and are separated in two complementary sections: emotional and
cognitive affinity with the biosphere. The third section, attitudinal affinity with the
biosphere, is a qualitative exploration of children’s desire to engage in playful
nature experiences. Using short interviews, we intend to clarify children’s spoken
attitudes towards nature, and to explore some of the conscious causes that drive a
child to actively engage in nature-oriented entertainment.
Emotional Affinity with the Biosphere
Children’s emotional affinity with the biosphere is here quantified by the capacity
for emotional perspective-taking and empathic concern for nature. The tasks
related to emotional perspective-taking (EA1-EA8) assess the child’s empathetic
capacity to experience pain for living beings (e.g., marine life, birds, plants,
animals) in comparison to empathy for damages to manufactured objects (e.g.,
vehicles). A similar method is used for adults in the Environmental Motives Scale
(Schultz 2000; 2001; Schultz et al. 2004). The tasks related to empathic concern
for nature (EA9-EA14) assess the positive or negative emotional response after
participants are shown pictures of positive or negative environmental behaviors
(e.g., polluting water/littering, watering plants). These emotional attributes indicate
a degree of self-other overlap (Cialdini et al. 1997) and are also employed
elsewhere to measure unconscious affection for nature (Mayer and Frantz 2004;
Nisbet, Zelenski and Murphy 2008; Cheng and Monroe 2010).
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 22
Cognitive Affinity with the Biosphere
Children’s cognitive affinity with the biosphere is measured by their basic
awareness of the ecological resources required for human sustenance (CA1-CA9).
That is, children’s capacity to link everyday items to the natural resources required
for their production, and their ability to recognize the negative impact that pollution
has on ecosystems and the biosphere (CA10-CA21).
Attitudinal Affinity with the Biosphere
The analysis of children’s attitudinal affinity with the biosphere is based on
qualitative methods. Children are interviewed about their appreciation of nature
experiences and their conscious willingness to play in natural environments. In
order to provide a holistic description of the children’s attitudinal affinity with
nature they are also asked to rationalize their previous answers. This approach
enables us to explore children’s reasoning and to recognize what constitutes and
drives attitudes towards nature at an age when both spatial familiarity and
environmental awareness begin to emerge (Piaget 1960).
Collection of Data
The data collection process is divided into three phases. In Phase 1, we assess
children’s frequency of nature experiences during preschool activities. In Phase 2,
we assess children’s emotional, cognitive, and attitudinal affinity with the
biosphere. Finally, in Phase 3, we assess the children’s social context. Each phase is
described below.
Phase 1: Assessing Children’s Frequency of Nature Experiences in
Preschools
All 134 municipal preschools in Stockholm that adhere to the Reggio Emilia
pedagogical approach were ranked according to the availability of nature
experiences of recreation, natural beauty, wilderness, and rurality in their
surroundings. We chose preschools that use the Reggio Emilia approach because
they are widely available in the Stockholm municipality, and because they
emphasize the importance of the physical learning environment. We carried out the
ranking of preschools using the following procedure:
1. A GIS analysis is performed using the attraction accessibility function in the
Place Syntax Tool (Ståhle, Marcus and Karlström 2005), a plug-in application
for MapInfo. Preschool accessibility to nature experiences is calculated by
measuring the distances between each preschool’s location and every
sociotope included in the categorized nature experiences (see Table 1).
2. The distances resulting from the GIS analysis are coupled with how often
preschool teachers and pupils cover such distances for outdoor activities.
Distances to each sociotope are then translated into values of “frequency of
use” to create a more direct evaluation of children’s nature routines. How
frequently a distance range is used for outdoor activities determines its
relevance in children’s nature routines. We therefore classify the distance
from each preschool to each sociotope into five different ranges previously
identified by the preschool teachers as corresponding to the frequency of
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 23
their outdoor routines. We then weight the presence of sociotopes in those
ranges accordingly (frequency values from 0 to 5). If a sociotope of nature is
present in near environments (e.g., 0-25 meters) it has a stronger impact on
children’s routines (frequency value 5) because it is systematically
experienced, while sociotopes in a distant range (e.g., 500-1000 meters)
have less impact (frequency value 1) because they are experienced only
sporadically. The frequency values in relation to the distance ranges are:
 0 to 25 meters (Daily exposure) – frequency value 5
 25 to 100 meters (11-15 times per month) – frequency value 4
 100 to 500 meters (5-10 times per month) – frequency value 3
 500 to 1000 meters (2-4 times per month) - frequency value 2
 1000 to 2000 meters (3-4 time per year) - frequency value 1
 >2000 meters (Not walkable daily) - frequency value 0
3. The resulting frequency values for each sociotope are then summed up in a
single value. At this stage, each preschool has a unique value that represents
a reliable estimation of how often the nature experiences available in the
preschool’s surroundings are experienced during outdoor activities. All 134
preschools are ranked according to this value.
In other words, each preschool is ranked according to the highest frequency of use
of the greatest variety of nature experiences in its surroundings (mean = 40.3, SD
= 7.7). The top ten preschools with the most frequent use of all nature experiences
and the ten preschools with the least frequent use were selected for comparison.
Preschools in the second-ranked deciles could not be selected to complement this
data because they were pilot-cases used to consolidate the methods for the
assessment of children’s affiliation with the biosphere (Giusti 2012). Of the selected
20 preschools, 13 were eliminated because they did not meet the requirements for
Phase 2 (having a minimum of three Swedish children of five years of age who have
been in the same preschool since their first year). The remaining seven preschools
selected—two from the top ranking and five from the bottom ranking—reported an
average time of outdoor activities with children of 14 hours/week (SD = 1.7) in line
with the Swedish national curriculum (Skolverket 2010).
Phase 2: Assessing Children’s Affinity with the Biosphere
Each component of this phase is designed to prevent known demographic and
cultural factors from influencing the results (Dunlap et al. 2000). Children’s age,
their number of years of education, their nationality, the nationality of both their
parents, the pedagogical approach of the preschool, and the overall urban
environment (Stockholm) are personal, social, and spatial characteristics that are
uniform in this study. Restricting variation in such a wide variety of factors limits
the size of the dataset, but makes the research more consistent with its intent:
assessing how four years of experiencing urban landscapes with different natural
features relates to children’s affinity with the biosphere.
The final participants were 16 children from preschools with low access to nature
experiences and 11 from preschools with high access to nature experiences.
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 24
Teachers individually interviewed all children inside their own preschool to create a
safe, relaxing environment for the children to respond to the tasks given to them
(Chawla 2006b). In so doing, we also minimize eventual unconscious transfer of
desired results from researchers to the children.
Materials for Phase 2
The assessment of children’s affinity with the biosphere is designed to address
affective and cognitive aspects of connectedness with the biosphere using two
complementary sets of image-based tasks, or “games.” The games were designed
to be general and not locally specific, as well as straightforward to interpret for the
researchers. Children’s motivations and intentions of playing in natural
environments, i.e. attitudinal affinity, is then evaluated with a short interview
(Table 2). Before performing the interview, the teachers were briefed about the
project and its assumptions, and were provided with written instructions on how to
perform all the requested tasks.
Table 2. Games testing for Emotional Affinity (EA1-EA14), Cognitive
Affinity (CA1-CA21), and Attitudinal Affinity with the Biosphere
assigned task
image sample
Emotional Affinity with the
Biosphere
Answer yes-no to
“Does [image] feel
pain?”
Tasks EA1 to EA8
Choosing a smile after
showing an image of
positive/negative
environmental
behavior.
Tasks EA9 to EA14
Cognitive Affinity with the
Biosphere
Answer “What do you
need to have [image
first column]?” by
selecting image from
the second column.
Tasks CA1 to CA9
Answer: “Is [image]
harmful to [image]?”
First column images
are shown one after
the other for each of
the four image groups
in the second column:
animals, vehicles, you,
[animals] [vehicles]
[you] [people]
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 25
people.
Each image group in
the second column is
composed of three
distinct images.
Tasks CA10 to CA21
Attitudinal Affinity with the
Biosphere
Select image and
motivate:
“Where do/don’t you
like to play?” “Why?”
“Where do/don’t you
feel free to play?”
“Why?”
“Where do/don’t you
feel safe to play?”
“Why?”
Recreation
area
Videogames
Playground
Farm
Toys
Green area
Outdoor
street
Forest
Emotional Affinity (EA) with the Biosphere
The games EA1-EA8 use images to assess empathic perspective taking through
eight yes/no questions. Children are shown images (e.g., animals, tree, plane) and
asked: “Does this image feel pain?” Positive answers to images of vehicles are
considered to represent non-affinity with nature. In the games EA9-EA14, six
images of positive or negative environmental behaviors (e.g., planting a
tree/positive, littering/negative) are shown to the children who are asked to
respond by using the image of a smiling or sad face. Smiling faces for images of
negative environmental behaviors are considered to represent non-affinity with the
biosphere.
Cognitive Affinity (CA) with the Biosphere
In the games CA1-CA9, participants are asked to couple nine images of finite
products (“What do you need to have [image],” e.g., milk, wooden table, paper) to
the corresponding image of the natural resource required (e.g., cow, forest, tree).
Coupling the products with man-made resources (e.g., factory, money) are
considered as representing non-affinity with nature. In the games CA10-CA21,
participants are asked 12 yes/no questions about the harmful effects of
environmental pollution on living beings (e.g., “Is [image of water/air/ground
pollution] harmful to [image of people/child/animals/vehicles]?”). Positive answers
about vehicles are considered to represent non-affinity with the biosphere.
Attitudinal Affinity with the Biosphere
Children are asked six questions during a short interview: “Where do/don’t you like
to play?”, “Where do/don’t you feel free to play?”, and “Where do/don’t you feel
safe to play?” Participants answer by selecting one of eight images of different
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 26
environments (park, indoor videogames, playground, farm, indoor toys, green
areas, outdoor street, and forest). The interview focuses on playing in natural
environments because it resulted to be the easiest hypothetical activity for children
to imagine. In order to enhance comprehension and facilitate the envisioning of
such hypothetical behavior the interview is facilitated by picture selection. Children
are then asked to rationalize their choices using their own words.
Phase 3: Assessing Children’s Social Context
The respondents during Phase 3 are the parents (N = 27) of the 27 children that
were interviewed in Phase 2. This phase attempts to assess the socio-economic
factors that might have influenced children’s degree of connectedness with nature
that could not be controlled a priori.
Materials for Phase 3
Three surveys are used during this phase. Survey one evaluates children’s exposure
to natural experiences during family activities. Parents are asked to provide the
amount of hours per week their child usually plays, excluding the time spent
playing at the preschool, in eight different indoor and outdoor environments (park,
video games, playground, farm, indoor toys, green areas, streets, and forest).
Survey two assesses social factors that might have facilitated, or constrained,
children’s engagement in nature experiences (Table 3). The children’s parents rate
16 statements using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree) inspired by the NEP (Bamberg and Moser 2007).
Table 3. Survey of children’s parents
Exploration tolerance
 “I tolerate when my child has scratches on knees and arms”
 “I tolerate when my child has very muddy clothes or shoes”
 “I tolerate when my child walks outdoor barefoot”
 “I tolerate when my child collects objects from the ground”
 “I tolerate when my child puts in his/her mouth objects from the ground”
Environmental values
 “I am involved in protecting the environment I live in”
 “I am fascinated by the beauty of natural elements”
 “I feel pleasure spending time in natural environments”
Perceived safety
 “Playing in parks is safe for my child”
 “Playing in agricultural environments with animals is safe for my child”
 “Playing in green areas with animals, water, flowers, etc. is safe for my child”
 “Playing in the forest is safe for my child”
Perceived importance
 “Playing in parks is important for my child”
 “Playing in agricultural environments with animals is important for my child”
 “Playing in green areas with animals, water, flowers, etc. is important for my child”
 “Playing in the forest is important for my child”
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 27
The third survey assesses parents’ socio-economic characteristics. Parents are
asked standard demographic information (e.g., age, number of children) and their
motivation for selecting the preschool in which their child is enrolled. Additionally,
parents’ income range is assessed through district statistical data provided online
by the city of Stockholm (Stockhom Stad).
Results
Phase 1: Children’s Frequency of Nature Experiences in Preschools
Figure 1 shows the geographical location of all the selected 134 preschools and
their different frequency of use of nature experiences, together with the locations of
the top and the bottom ten preschools selected for comparison. The standard
deviation values obtained from the statistical analysis confirm that nature
experiences of “recreation” (mean = 11.3, SD = 2.2) and “natural beauty” (mean =
11.6, SD = 3.3) are more evenly distributed than experiences of “wilderness”
(mean = 11.3, SD = 4.3), while experiences of “rurality” are considerably less
available across the whole municipality (mean = 6.1, SD = 2.9). In fact, the spatial
configuration of Stockholm provides very few experiences of “rurality” (Figure 1d)
and mostly isolates experiences of “wilderness” in peripheral locations of the
municipality (Figure 1c). The two preschools with highest frequency of nature
experiences, compared to the five lowest ones, have considerably more access to
all four nature experiences (mean = 38.7, SD = 18): recreation (mean = 11, SD =
6.4), natural beauty (mean = 11.1, SD = 6.4), wilderness (mean = 11.4, SD = 5.5)
and rurality (mean = 6.2, SD = 3.8).
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 28
Figure 1. Distribution of nature experiences of a) recreation, b) natural
beauty, c) wilderness, and d) rurality from preschools in Stockholm.
a)
b)
c)
d)
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 29
Phase 2: Children’s Affinity with the Biosphere
Phase 2 analyzes emotional and cognitive affinity with nature in 11 Children with
Nature-Rich routines (CNR) and in 16 Children with Nature-Deficit routines (CND).
Because of the small dataset, the computation of reliability using Cronbach’s Alpha
is presented in combination with Spearman-Brown coefficients (Yurdugul 2008).
The reliability of the 35 tasks assessing children’s affinity with the biosphere is α =
.701 and odd-even splits report a split-half reliability of r = .758. These results
ensure data reliability and strong internal consistency of both emotional and
cognitive tasks as well as the overall quantitative assessment of the children’s
affinity with the biosphere. The affinity rates for CNR and CND are compared with
independent two-sample t-tests (Table 4).
Table 4. Mean results, Standard Deviation (SD), t, p, df, and effect size (d)
of independent two-sample t-test for Emotional and Cognitive
Affinity with the Biosphere in Children with Nature-Rich routines
(CNR) and Children with Nature-Deficit routines (CND)
affinity CNR
(N = 11)
affinity CND
(N = 16)
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
t
p
df
d
Emotional
Affinity with the
Biosphere
.792
.121
.665
.154
2.289
.031
25
.916
Cognitive
Affinity with the
Biosphere
.771
.134
.660
.133
2.114
.045
25
.845
Children with nature-rich routines score significantly and notably higher in
Emotional Affinity (EA) with nature (mean= .792, two-sample t(25) = 2.289, p =
.031, d = .916) than children with nature-deficit routines (mean = .665). CNR show
higher capacities to emotionally affiliate with the biosphere in almost all questions,
regardless of the difficulty characterizing the single tasks. Specifically, CNR perform
better in the tasks EA1 (37 percent higher empathy towards trees; mean-CNR =
.55, mean-CND = .38), EA7 (28 percent higher empathy towards fishes; mean-CNR
= .91, mean-CND = .69), EA9 (46 percent higher sadness related to water
pollution; mean-CNR = 1, mean-CND = .63) and EA10 (37 percent higher sadness
related to deforestation; mean-CNR = .73, mean-CND = .50). CNR have therefore
developed stronger capacity for perspective-taking towards non-human life forms
and higher empathic concern towards environmental degradation. Overall, children
with nature-rich routines consistently show on average 17 percent stronger
emotional affinity with the biosphere than children with nature-deficit routines
(Figure 2).
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 30
Figure 2. Average results of games testing for Emotional and Cognitive
Affinity with the Biosphere
Children with nature-rich routines score (mean = .771) significantly and notably
higher in Cognitive Affinity (CA) with nature (two-sample t(25) = 2.114, p = .045,
d = .845) than the children with nature-deficit routines (mean = .660). CNR also
show higher cognitive capacity to link finite products with the ecological resources
required for their manufacture and better perception of the harmful effects of
environmental degradation (Figure 2). Specifically, children with nature-rich
routines perform better in the tasks CA5 (37 percent higher understanding of the
link between wool and sheep, mean-CNR = .73, mean-CND = .5), CA8 (37 percent
higher understanding of the link between blueberries and forest, mean-CNR = .73,
mean-CND = .5), and CA19 (50 percent higher understanding the harmful effects
of water pollution for animals, mean-CNR = .73, mean-CND = .44). Once again,
those children with nature-rich routines consistently show on average 15 percent
higher cognitive capacities to affiliate with the biosphere in almost all questions,
regardless of the levels of difficulty characterizing the single tasks.
The qualitative analysis of children’s attitudinal affinity with the biosphere shows
that children with high and low nature experiences share very similar attitudes
towards playing in natural environments. Indeed, children of both groups consider
indoor environments the safest to play in (n = 13) and wild environments the least
safe (n = 12). The fear of getting lost and losing their parents (n = 4) and the fear
of dangerous animals such as wolves, bears, and moose (n = 6) motivate a large
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 31
number of such attitudes. Supplementary results are provided by the short
interviews in which children are asked to rationalize their affiliation with nature.
Children might want to play indoors just because they can be part of choosing the
dinner, or might want to play outdoors because they do not want to be disturbed by
their little sibling. The reasoning for their choices is mostly based on contextual
memories. Similarly, their emotional reactions to the biosphere relate to their
contextual understanding of reality. “Deer and dinosaurs do not feel pain because
they can hit back” (Karolina) or “because you are afraid of them” (Fabian), and
“airplanes and cars are alive because they drink gas” (Erwin) are some examples of
how the conscious motivations that justify their positive or negative emotional
reactions are constructed upon their own vision of the world.
Phase 3: Assessing Children’s Social Context
The influence of the social context on children’s affinity with nature is estimated,
but the size of the dataset (N = 27) limits the conclusions that can be drawn.
Parents are surveyed on children’s exposure to natural environments during family
activities. On average parents estimate that children play 49.7 percent indoors,
18.2 percent in playgrounds and streets, and 32.1 percent in natural environments
(mean = 25.4, SD = 12.1). However, parents’ answers are very inconsistent
because they reported an unrealistically wide range of playing hours per week (min
= 8, max = 72). Such data and results are therefore unsuitable for robust
conclusions.
The social factors that might facilitate children’s engagement with nature are
assessed using a survey of 16 Likert-based items given to children’s parents. The
results have been normalized in a single score (mean = .83) with a Cronbach’s
Alpha α = .841, and the computation of odd-even splits produces split-half
reliability of r = .712. However, such results show no correlation with children’s
emotional (r = .03, p > .05) or cognitive affinity with the biosphere (r = -.19, p >
.05). The homogeneity of the social sample taken into consideration (i.e., all
parents are Swedish persons living in Stockholm in similar age groups) seems
indeed to have produced highly analogous answers (SD = .08). Parents’ main
motivation for choosing the preschool for their child is “because it’s close to home”
(97 percent) which makes the analysis of available nature experiences in the
surroundings of preschools somewhat also indicative of home circumstances.
Parents’ economic status shows no correlation with the degree of emotional (r = -
.16, p > .05) and cognitive affinity children have (r = -.20, p >.05), thus a
hypothetical association between low affinity with the biosphere and low income
ranges is not supported by this study.
Discussion and Implications
The main results of this study indicate that the spatial configuration of nature
experiences in Stockholm is associated with children’s development of an affinity
with the biosphere. More specifically, we show that of the 27 participants, those
who have had nature-deficit routines for four years in preschool have developed
considerably weaker emotional and cognitive affinity with the biosphere. The strict
selection of participants (same age, years of education, nationality, parents’
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 32
nationality, preschools’ pedagogical approach), the consistency in the analysis of
social factors that facilitate children in engaging with nature experiences (mean =
.83, SD= .08), and the proximity of children’s homes to preschools (in 97 percent
of the respondents) control for possible confounding variables. The significant
variance found in the results for both children’s emotional (17 percent) and
cognitive affinity (15 percent) is in close relation to the nature routines that children
have had during preschool outdoor activities. The results show that deficient
contact with urban nature over time is negatively associated with children’s
development of an attachment to the biosphere. Additionally, the results on
attitudinal affiliation with nature show that children’s attitudes towards playing in
nature are limited by highly contextual factors. For instance, the choice to play
outdoors may have to do with the presence of friends rather than an outspoken
preference for any particular environment. Thus, although firsthand experiences of
nature have a significant role in enabling positive attitudes towards the
environment, other complex contextual circumstances might hinder the emergence
of such attitudes.
Supplementary results are provided by the short interviews in which children are
asked to rationalize their affiliation with the biosphere. The emotional attraction or
repulsion for the biosphere that children show with their answers seem to emerge
from their own understanding of reality. Children do not show a positive attitude for
nature for what nature is in itself, but for what nature is for them. As suggested by
the biological theory of cognition, the internal representation of reality is built upon
neural interactions between an individual and the external environment (Maturana
and Varela 1987). In this neural dynamic, persistency plays a leading role. Indeed,
persistent exposure to the same neurological experience materially nurtures the
same neural networks (Maletic-Savatic, Malinow and Svoboda 1999). Accordingly,
for one group of children in this study, the persistent high frequency of nature
experiences have nurtured an affinity with the biosphere that might be supported
by a somatic “neural familiarity” with experiences of biological rather than of
artificial character. Such “neural familiarity” is an unconscious attribute that is
physically wired in one’s neural configuration, and so it is an embedded
characteristic of one’s own biological identity (Zull 2002; Maturana and Varela
1987). As already hypothesized (Naess 1973; Bragg 1996; Schultz 2002), nature-
deficit routines not only impact one’s worldview and set of assumptions, but might
be literally part of one’s biological identity. A disappearance of nature experiences
from everyday life may leave human beings with a void of memories that would
impede nature and natural dynamics from entering the neural representation of self
upon which humans build emotions and reasoning.
From the spatial analysis it should be noted that the experiences of wilderness are
the most dissimilar in access across the two groups of children, and the games that
measure children’s capacity to emotionally affiliate with elements in wild
environments are the ones with the highest variation. Although the research design
does not allow us to conclusively discuss the influence of each nature experience
(i.e., recreation, natural beauty, wilderness, rurality) separately, this result further
supports our hypothesis that persistent deficiency of nature experiences relates to
reduced affiliation with natural features.
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 33
Due to the limited number of respondents, we acknowledge that additional studies
of this kind are needed to ensure the statistical power of the results and to consider
them for nomothetic conclusions. However, our findings add to the literature cited
herein and suggest that the patterns we have observed offer important insights
that are not only characteristic of Stockholm and Swedish children, but are likely to
have more general applicability. This paper hence calls for much needed
interdisciplinary research linking urban design, environmental psychology,
neuroscience and anthropology, in order to further evaluate how nature routines
that are designed in cities nurture or constrain one’s identification with nature. The
implications of such research could dramatically impact the state-of-the-art of
urban design, and offer a generous opportunity to provide urban dwellers with the
kind of emotional attachment to nature that acts as stepping stone for the
emergence of environmental stewardship.
Conclusion
The spatial configurations of modern cities consistently marginalize natural
environments in both presence and diversity (Mumford 1961; Miller 2005). In this
study, the consequences of such planned and designed exclusion of nature
experiences are measured on children’s affiliation with the biosphere. Our results
indicate that persistent interaction with natural environments correlates with a
higher capacity to emotionally and cognitively affiliate with the biosphere. Exposure
to nature experiences during the first four years of life does not seem to weaken
children’s fear of predators or of getting lost in the forest—which are known
biophobic traits (Ulrich 1993)—but significantly correlates with children’s ability to
distinguish living from lifeless entities, to be empathetic for non-human life forms
(EA1-EA8), to be concerned for environmental degradation (EA9-EA14), to be
aware of the harmful effects of environmental pollution (CA1-CA9), and finally to
recognize the role of ecological resources for the production of everyday objects
(CA10-CA21).
This study supports the hypothesis that long-lasting exposure to natural
environments, even in an urban context, is closely related to the development of a
conscious and unconscious affinity with the biosphere and its dynamics. The nature
routines embedded in urban forms seem to act as contextual factors that nurture
the development of mindsets more or less affiliated with nature. Such affinity has
previously been suggested to have significant effects on the foundation of a lifelong
commitment to environmental concern (Schultz 2001; 2000) and environmental
stewardship (Chawla 2006a; 1998). As the urban population of the world is
projected to surpass six billion in 2050 (United Nations 2007), urban spaces that
nurture nature routines, especially during childhood, are likely to support the re-
connection with the biosphere which many scholars in the sustainability sciences
are calling for (Folke et al. 2011; Bragg 1996; Samways 2007; Miller 2005). Is it
possible to design cities that mitigate the on-going trend of “extinction of nature
experiences” (Miller 2005), “environmental generational amnesia” (Kahn, Jr. 2002),
or “nature-deficit disorder” (Louv 2005)? Humankind is aspiring to a sustainable
stewardship of the biosphere. Such stewardship might be dependent not only on
the human capacity to rationally comprehend the limits of natural resources, but
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Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool… 34
also on the human capacity to emotionally bond with local ecosystems and existing
non-human life. Considering that cities are the most common human habitat, the
intentional design of their very forms have great potential to remind, cherish or
neglect the interdependence of human and biotic well-being.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Terry Hartig for the insightful discussion on an earlier version of the
paper, and three anonymous reviewers for their feedback.
Matteo Giusti’s research aims at defining principles of urban design that nurture
identification with nature. The “extinction of nature experience” is commonplace in
the urban lifestyle and its consequences are widely assumed to trigger a self-
reinforcing cycle of disaffection that hinders people’s engagement in environmental
stewardship. Matteo’s research revolves on how to design spatial configurations of
urban nature to support the psychological foundation of environmental
stewardship—identification with nature. Matteo’s research embraces aspects of
resilience theory, spatial cognition, biophilic design, neuro-biological theories of
cognition, and more generally environmental psychology and urban design.
Stephan Barthel's research revolves around the management of urban ecosystem
services and resilience. Stephan’s research shows that urban ecosystem services
are a product of human-driven co-evolution, consequently sustaining ecosystems in
urban landscapes is not about conservation without people, but shaped by and
dependent on management practice by people. Practice that links to generation of
ecosystem services are facilitated by social-ecological memory of local
communities-of-practice that holds long-term management rights. Consequently,
local communities of practice that contribute to the production of ecosystem
services should explicitly be taken into account in urban green governance of urban
landscapes.
Lars Marcus is an architect and professor in Urban Design at KTH School of
Architecture. He is director of the research group Spatial Analysis and Design (SAD)
in the field of Spatial Morphology, the study of how spatial form generated by
architecture and urban design structures people’s use of space in their everyday life
and, in extension, conditions critical social, economic and ecological processes. He
is co-founder of the international MSc-program in Sustainable Urban Planning and
Design (SUPD) and also founder of the consultancy firm Spacescape, which
performs spatial analysis and policy development for urban projects.
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