Parental perspectives of child nature connection

Full project title: Nature deficit disorder in the pandemic: parental perspectives through multiple crises

Duration: August 2022 to July 2023

Project lead for CESR: Dr Rosamund Portus

Other UWE Bristol researcher: Sara Williams

Funder: UWE Bristol Vice-Chancellor's Early Career Researcher Award

This project considered how concerns about child nature disconnect have been subject to increased interest in recent years, with attention being paid to the value of nature connection for children’s health, wellbeing, personal development, and environmental values. However, there remains a need to explore the barriers that hinder children’s opportunities to connect with nature, as well as to develop resources for nature connection which are responsive to ongoing cultural shifts and challenges. 

As such, drawing on the thematic analysis of interviews with parents/guardians of seven to nine year olds, this project offered timely insight into how parents/guardians make sense of and experience concerns linked to child nature disconnect. Our research showed that there are multiple, often intersecting barriers that parents/guardians experience when seeking to facilitate experiences which support children’s connection with nature. We further examined how the findings of this research could serve as the foundational steps in the co-creation with parent/guardians of an educational nature toolkit which aims to support children’s nature connectedness. This toolkit was developed in collaboration with parents/guardians, and evaluated through teacher-led discussions with children and surveys with parents/guardians.

This project advocates the need to progress studies exploring how children growing up today might be meaningfully and appropriately supported to explore their connection with nature.

• Portus, R., Barnes, S., and Williams, S. (2025). Interrogating the ‘when I was young’ trope: Supporting children’s play for nature connection and resilience through the development of an alternative nature toolkit. Children, Youth and Environments, 35(2).
• Portus, R., Barnes, S., and Williams, S. (2023). The Alternative Nature Toolkit. The Alternative Nature Toolkit. 

For further information about the project, please contact Dr Rosamund Portus (rosamund.portus@uwe.ac.uk).