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Direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences collectively predict preadolescents’ self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors

BACKGROUND: The quantity and context of children’s nature experiences are undergoing significant changes, exacerbating a pervasive negative cycle that could impact future conservation efforts. Therefore, it is essential to conduct further studies on the potential impacts of these changes on children...

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Autores principales: Yue, Zhihui, Chen, Jin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10290449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37361038
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15542
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author Yue, Zhihui
Chen, Jin
author_facet Yue, Zhihui
Chen, Jin
author_sort Yue, Zhihui
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The quantity and context of children’s nature experiences are undergoing significant changes, exacerbating a pervasive negative cycle that could impact future conservation efforts. Therefore, it is essential to conduct further studies on the potential impacts of these changes on children’s willingness to engage in conservation practices. METHODS: We surveyed 2,175 preadolescents (aged 9–12) from rural and city schools in Hangzhou, Kunming, and Xishuangbanna, China, regarding their nature experiences (direct, indirect, and vicarious) and self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors. RESULTS: We found that children in urban areas have higher frequencies of indirect and vicarious experiences than those in rural areas, with some direct nature experiences seldom reported among city respondents. Direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences significantly predicted children’s conservation behavior and collectively provided the highest predictive power for conservation behavior. Direct and vicarious experiences were strongly correlated with pro-nature behavior, and the latter with pro-environmental behavior. Emotional and cognitive connection with nature positively predicted conservation behavior, influenced by location and residence type. DISCUSSION: This study reveals that different types of nature experiences shape children’s current conservation behaviors in China.
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spelling pubmed-102904492023-06-25 Direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences collectively predict preadolescents’ self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors Yue, Zhihui Chen, Jin PeerJ Conservation Biology BACKGROUND: The quantity and context of children’s nature experiences are undergoing significant changes, exacerbating a pervasive negative cycle that could impact future conservation efforts. Therefore, it is essential to conduct further studies on the potential impacts of these changes on children’s willingness to engage in conservation practices. METHODS: We surveyed 2,175 preadolescents (aged 9–12) from rural and city schools in Hangzhou, Kunming, and Xishuangbanna, China, regarding their nature experiences (direct, indirect, and vicarious) and self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors. RESULTS: We found that children in urban areas have higher frequencies of indirect and vicarious experiences than those in rural areas, with some direct nature experiences seldom reported among city respondents. Direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences significantly predicted children’s conservation behavior and collectively provided the highest predictive power for conservation behavior. Direct and vicarious experiences were strongly correlated with pro-nature behavior, and the latter with pro-environmental behavior. Emotional and cognitive connection with nature positively predicted conservation behavior, influenced by location and residence type. DISCUSSION: This study reveals that different types of nature experiences shape children’s current conservation behaviors in China. PeerJ Inc. 2023-06-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10290449/ /pubmed/37361038 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15542 Text en © 2023 Yue and Chen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Conservation Biology
Yue, Zhihui
Chen, Jin
Direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences collectively predict preadolescents’ self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors
title Direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences collectively predict preadolescents’ self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors
title_full Direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences collectively predict preadolescents’ self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors
title_fullStr Direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences collectively predict preadolescents’ self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors
title_full_unstemmed Direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences collectively predict preadolescents’ self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors
title_short Direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences collectively predict preadolescents’ self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors
title_sort direct, indirect, and vicarious nature experiences collectively predict preadolescents’ self-reported nature connectedness and conservation behaviors
topic Conservation Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10290449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37361038
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15542
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