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Promoting Children’s Active Play in Nature via Primary Care
Objective To assess the feasibility, acceptability, and utility of Project Nature (PN), an intervention during well-child checks, to promote children’s active play in nature from the perspectives of parents and clinic staff. Study Design Six primary care clinics in Washington State implemented PN, including anticipatory guidance from a clinician, a nature-based toy, and written/internet based family resources, during well-child checks for 1-10 year olds. We conducted quantitative surveys of different groups of parents before (control group, n = 154) and after (intervention group, n = 131) the implementation of PN at each clinic. We analyzed differences between the 2 groups using chi-square and Mann–Whitney U tests. Postintervention, we conducted qualitative interviews with 11 clinic staff members about implementation, coded the data, and conducted thematic analysis. Results The proportion of parents reporting that their child’s clinician encouraged daily outdoor time was higher postintervention than the control group (85% vs 54%, P = .02). A higher proportion of parents in the intervention compared with the control group reported that the clinician encouraged daily physical activity (86% vs 71%, P = .09). Families generally reported strong satisfaction with all the intervention components. Clinic staff felt PN facilitated conversation around active outdoor play and believed that PN was feasible within their existing workflows. Conclusions PN is a feasible and acceptable approach for supporting children’s active play in nature via primary care clinics. These results provide a foundation for a larger evaluation assessing the impact of PN on families’ physical activity and nature-based experiences.
Read moreIn Moral Relationship with Nature: Development and Interaction
One of the overarching problems of the world today is that too many people see themselves as dominating other groups of people, and dominating nature. That is a root problem. And thus part of a core solution builds from Kohlberg’s commitment to a universal moral orientation, though extended to include not only all people but the more-than-human world: animals, trees, plants, species, ecosystems, and the land itself. In this article, Peter Kahn makes a case for this form of ethical extensionism, and then present psychological evidence for it in both children and adults, including studies with inner-city Black youth and their parents. Then he builds on Piaget’s, Kohlberg’s, and Turiel’s emphasis that interaction with the physical and social world is a critical mechanism for development. His corollary is this: that to reverse the incredibly fast human-caused destruction of nature—the wellsprings of human existence—we need to deepen and extend people’s interactions with nature, and with its relatively wild forms, even in urban environments. Toward this end, Dr. Kahn discusses his current body of research and framework for urban design based on what are referred to as interaction patterns.
Read moreWhen Screen Time Isn’t Screen Time: Tensions and Needs Between Tweens and Their Parents During Nature-Based Exploration
Figure 1: Screens of the NatureCollection app 1: Onboarding “What are your interests?” 2: Homepage 3: My Collections 4: Classification 5: Challenges We investigated the experiences of 15 parents and their tween children (ages 8-12, n=23) during nature explorations using the NatureCollections app, a mobile application that connects children with nature. Drawing on parent interviews and in-app audio recordings from a 2-week deployment study, we found that tweens’ experiences with the NatureCollections app were influenced by tensions surrounding how parents and tweens negotiate technology use more broadly. Despite these tensions, the app succeeded in engaging tweens in outdoor nature explorations, and parents valued the shared family experiences around nature. Parents desired the app to support family bonding and inform them about how their tween used the app. This work shows how applications intended to support enriching youth experiences are experienced in the context of screen time tensions between parents and tween during a transitional period of child development. We offer recommendations for designing digital experiences to support family needs and reduce screen time tensions.
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