Spending Time in Nature - ChiLDREN and Parents

Why did we do his research? 

Engagement with nature has the potential to mitigate the detrimental health impacts of increased urbanization and indoor sedentary behaviours, while simultaneously promoting overall well-being and lifelong resiliency. However, the amount of time that people, particularly children, spend in nature has declined considerably in recent decades.
 

What did this study examine?  
We employed the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation model of Behaviour  to examine barriers and facilitators to spending time in nature for children and their families.

What did we find?
Through semi-structured interviews with 30 parent-child dyads living in Nova Scotia (children ages 8–15), we determined that the most salient barriers to spending time in nature for both parents and children were within three subdomains of the COM-B model: physical opportunity (e.g., lack of time), automatic motivation (e.g., not a habit), and reflective motivation (e.g., not a priority). Understanding why children and their families spend such little time in nature is necessary to promote the development of interventions targeting time in nature for children, and the related health benefits.