Does Time Outdoors Improve Children’s Mental Health? |
Lots of research suggests positive mental health outcomes when children spend time in nature.
More research is needed on the impact of nature on the mental health of children with a mental disorder.
Contact with nature can be as simple as looking at trees from a car window to being fully immersed.
With summer weather upon us, can contact with nature actually improve our children’s mental and physical health? The answer, I’m surprised to say, is not as straightforward as I thought.
The Biophilia Hypothesis
There is no doubt that we are seeing spikes in the rates of mental disorders and physical health declines among children and adolescents around the world. At the same time, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that time spent outdoors in human-engineered spaces like parks or natural spaces like untouched forests can benefit children. Do a quick survey of the literature, and one finds studies that remind us that contact with nature meets a basic human........