ArticlePloS one2018
Measuring connectedness to nature in preschool children in an urban setting and its relation to psychological functioning.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02715544 (Promoting Healthy Eating and Active Playtime by Connecting Preschool Children to Nature), which is not on this map. Cited by 24 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Promoting Healthy Eating and Active Playtime by Connecting Preschool Children to Nature
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Interventions to prevent obesity in children aged 2 to 4 years old.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- The role of connection with nature in empirical studies with physiological measurements: a systematic literature review.Biologia futura · 2023Pooled it
- The Relationship Between Green Space and Prosocial Behaviour Among Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Pooled it
- Actual and Virtual Parks Benefit Quality of Life and Physical Activity: A Cluster Trial.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2024Trial
- The Influence of Connectedness to Nature on Young Children's Creative Personality: A Parallel Mediation Analysis.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Parental positive thinking and psychological flexibility in relation to children's nature connectedness: the mediating role of family functioning.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Needs to connect to urban nature in female university students from Southern Germany: a mixed methods concept mapping study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Nature connectedness framework for adolescents: an integrative review.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Article
- Biophilia in Italian preschool children: preliminary findings.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The mediating role of the connection with nature in the relationship between behavioral problems and emotion regulation in early childhood.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Cohort Profile: The ORIGINS pregnancy and birth cohort.International journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- The Influence of Mindful Parenting on Children's Creative Tendencies: The Chain Mediating Effect of Parent-Child Intimacy and Connectedness to Nature.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Modification of childcare's outdoor setting for toddler physical activity and nature-based play: A mixed methods study.PloS one · 2024Article
- Editorial: Climate change challenge in pediatric psychology.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Data resource profile: the ORIGINS project databank: a collaborative data resource for investigating the developmental origins of health and disease.International journal of population data science · 2023Article
- Understanding changes to children's connection to nature during the COVID-19 pandemic and implications for child well-being.People and nature (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2022Article
- What socio-demographic characteristics of university students in Southern Germany predict their urban nature connectedness?PloS one · 2022Article
- How Is Connectedness With Nature Linked to Life Satisfaction or Depression Among Chinese People Living in Rural Low-Income Households? A Serial Mediation Model.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Spaceship Earth Revisited: The Co-Benefits of Overcoming Biological Extinction of Experience at the Level of Person, Place and Planet.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe urban environment has been criticized for promoting 'nature-deficit' and 'child-nature disconnectedness'. Keeping in mind the importance of nature exposure and its extensive health benefits, many environmental programs around the world hope to (re)connect children with nature. To evaluate the effectiveness of such efforts, valid tools to measure Connectedness to Nature (CN) are needed but do not exist today, especially for use with pre-schoolers.
methodsThe original CN Index was modified and tested among the Parents of Preschool Children (CNI-PPC) in an urban setting (Hong Kong) for its internal consistency (n = 299) and external validity (n = 194). The 'Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire' (SDQ) was chosen for divergent and convergent analysis. Conventional recommendations for test adaptation and translation were used.
resultsConfirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed that the 16-item scale adequately captured four major dimensions: enjoyment of nature, empathy for nature, responsibility toward nature, and awareness of nature (Cronbach's α were respectively .86, .87, .75 and .80). When tested against the SDQ, a validated measure for child psychological functioning, and identification of children's problem behaviours, three CNI-PPC factors influenced the SDQ outcomes: (1) the more enjoyment of nature children displayed the less overall distress and impairment they exhibited (β = -.64); (2) greater responsibility toward nature in children was associated with less hyperactivity (β = -.50), fewer behavioural and peer difficulties (β = -.62 and β = -.65 respectively) and improved prosocial behaviour (β = .77); (3) the more aware children were of nature, the less emotional difficulties they exhibited (β = -.51). The variance explained was large (range R2 = .42 to .80).
conclusionsThus, CNI-PPC factors have meaningful and substantive associations with the strengths and difficulties parents perceive in their children. This indicates that the CNI-PPC is a valid and reliable instrument to measure CN at an age when children cannot respond for themselves. Further, this simple tool can help researchers/practitioners to better understand how connectedness to nature affects child psychological functioning and wellbeing.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02715544. Registered 8 March 2016.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.