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Nature-Based Early Childhood Education and Children's Social, Emotional and Cognitive Development: A Mixed-Methods
Avril Johnstone1, Anne Martin1, Rita Cordovil2
1MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Berkeley Square, 99 Berkeley Street, Glasgow G3 7HR, UK.
Summary
Nature-based early childhood education (ECE) shows potential benefits for children's social, emotional, and cognitive development, including improved self-regulation and social skills. Further high-quality research is needed to confirm these positive associations.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Environmental Psychology
- Early Childhood Education
Background:
- Nature-based early childhood education (ECE) is increasingly recognized for its potential impact on child development.
- Existing evidence on the specific benefits of nature integration in ECE requires systematic synthesis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and synthesize evidence on the associations between nature-based ECE and children's social, emotional, and cognitive development.
- To identify the quality of evidence and potential developmental outcomes linked to nature-based ECE.
Main Methods:
- Systematic review of 36 studies (26 quantitative, 9 qualitative, 1 mixed-methods) published up to August 2020.
- Inclusion criteria: children aged 2-7 years in ECE, nature integration, and child-level outcome assessment.
- Synthesis methods included effect direction, thematic analysis, and results-based convergent synthesis.
Main Results:
- Positive associations were found between nature-based ECE and self-regulation, social skills, social-emotional development, nature relatedness, nature awareness, and play interaction, based on very low certainty evidence.
- Inconsistent associations were observed for attention, attachment, initiative, environmentally responsible behavior, and play disruption.
- Qualitative studies highlighted opportunities for play, socialization, and creativity in nature-based ECE settings.
Conclusions:
- Nature-based ECE may positively influence certain aspects of childhood development, particularly social-emotional skills and nature connectedness.
- High-quality experimental research is necessary to establish causality and understand the dose-response relationship between nature exposure and developmental outcomes.
- Future research should focus on rigorous designs to explore the pathways linking nature-based ECE to enhanced child development.
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