Does Playing Outdoors Improve Parent-Child Interaction?

In his 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv makes the argument for a syndrome he calls nature deficit disorder.  It is well documented that children spend less time in nature than in past generations. 

Louv attributes this loss of time in nature to three factors:  1) parents’ anxiety about the risks of being in natural surroundings, 2) the increase in urbanization causing a reduction of access to natural lands, and 3) competition with screen time (television, computers, tablets, and phones).    

Louv argues that as children have less contact with nature, it has a range of deleterious effects, including increasing or worsening of:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Attention Deficit Disorder
• Obesity

Louv cites research showing that access to nature reduces stress and increases attention span and learning, and showing that lack of access to natural settings reduces school performance in social studies, science, language arts, and math.

As Earth Day approaches, it is worth mentioning that, beyond the impact on children, there is a great societal cost.  Children deprived of experience in nature lose connection with the environment.  A country of citizens lacking a strong understanding of the workings of nature cannot make informed voting decisions regarding civic and environmental policy. 

While reading Louv’s book, I wondered if the culprit is nature-deprivation or what now substitutes for the time previously spent in nature.  The use of media is on the rise by children.  Since too much screen time may have deleterious effects on children, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting children’s access to media.  In either case, the many benefits of more time in natural settings outweigh the risks.

In scoring hundreds of parenting assessments, I have noticed an interesting phenomenon that may be relevant to a discussion of nature deprivation disorder, and that may point to an interesting avenue of research.  For the KIPS parenting assessment, parents are instructed to just play as they normally do with their children for 15 minutes. I have noticed that when the play occurs outdoors, the quality of the parenting is on average higher, when compared to play occurring indoors. In Louvs most recent book, The Nature Principle, he explores the positive impact of nature on adults.  I suspect Louv would argue for a direct effect of being in nature that influences the parent positively. The arguments for positive effects of nature on children and adults are compelling.  It could be that nature’s impact on the parent and on the child has a synergistic effect on parent-child interaction.  Alternatively, one might conjecture that those parents who have an affinity for nature, and so choose to go outside, may have better parenting ability whether inside or outside, e.g., a selection bias. 

I find the various possibilities and interactions of nature and parenting intriguing.  This seems like a fantastic opportunity for graduate student research.  I envision a study where families participate in parenting assessments conducted as usual, allowing the parent and child to do what they naturally do, and noting where the play takes place.  Next, the families would participate in a second assessment where they were randomly asked to either play outside or inside, with the non-switched dyads serving as controls.  One could also assess how much nature time the family typically spends as an independent control variable.  If Louv is correct, then being in nature may result in increased parenting quality.  However, if the selection bias possibility holds, then the parents who chose to play outside should show similar quality when playing in doors as well.  If the selection bias possibility is shown, then we face a chicken and egg dilemma.  Does the parent who selects to go outside usually spend more time in nature, which might have positive impact on the parent?  More difficult to tease out would be the parent’s historical access to nature as a child. Louv’s Nature Deficit Disorder hypothesis would predict that an adult who spent more time in nature would grow up to have the potential to be a better parent. This is such a rich area for research with very practical application.  

For more on connecting children with nature see the Children in Nature Network.