Peer-reviewed article
Connection to nature is associated with social-emotional learning of children
Kevin Lanza, Melody Alcazar, Baojiang Chen, Harold Willis Kohl ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined whether children's psychological connection to nature is associated with social-emotional learning skills. Among 138 children aged 8-10 from three elementary schools serving economically disadvantaged Latino communities in Austin, Texas, researchers found that stronger connection to nature was significantly associated with better overall social-emotional skills, self-awareness, self-management, and relationship skills. The findings suggest that nature-based interventions focusing on deepening children's connection to nature could support their social-emotional development.
Key points
- Children with stronger psychological connection to nature had higher overall social-emotional learning skills (β = 0.29, p = 0.001)
- Connection to nature was associated with improved self-awareness (β = 0.46, p = 0.001) and self-management (β = 0.34, p = 0.009)
- Relationship skills were also significantly associated with nature connection (β = 0.39, p = 0.009)
- Study population was primarily economically disadvantaged Latino children from communities with low access to nature
- Authors recommend developing nature-based social-emotional learning interventions with explicit focus on strengthening psychological connection to nature
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional study measuring associations rather than causal effects, so it cannot determine whether connection to nature improves SEL skills or whether children with better SEL skills develop stronger nature connections. The study included only children from one geographic area (Austin, Texas) and specific demographic groups, which may limit generalizability.
Abstract
When assessing the link between nature exposure and social-emotional or proximal outcomes of children, few studies have included the psychological connection to nature as a mediating variable. We determined the association between children's connection to nature and their overall social-emotional learning (SEL) skills, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. The final study sample of children ages 8–10 (n = 138) originated from three elementary schools serving majority economically disadvantaged Latino households in communities with relatively low access to nature in Austin, Texas, United States, in 2019. SEL skills originated from a survey administered annually by the school district. Output from ordinary least squares regression models in which nature connection was measured using the Connection to Nature Index and that adjusted for gender, race, ethnicity, grade, and school found children's connection to nature was directly associated with higher overall SEL skills (β = 0.29; 95% CI [0.13, 0.45]; p = 0.001); self-awareness (β = 0.46; 95% CI [0.29, 0.64]; p = 0.001); self-management (β = 0.34; 95% CI [0.09, 0.60]; p = 0.009); and relationship skills (β = 0.39; 95% CI [0.10, 0.68]; p = 0.009). Results suggest children's connection to nature may positively impact their SEL skills. We recommend developing nature-based SEL interventions with explicit focus on strengthening children's psychological connection to nature.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Strengthening children's psychological connection to nature through nature-based interventions
- Population
- Children ages 8-10 (n=138) from three elementary schools serving majority economically disadvantaged Latino households in Austin, Texas
Key finding
Children's connection to nature was directly associated with higher overall SEL skills (β = 0.29; 95% CI [0.13, 0.45]; p = 0.001)