{"id":1462,"date":"2018-01-03T22:33:33","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T22:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/?p=1462"},"modified":"2018-01-03T22:33:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T22:33:33","slug":"engaging-with-nature-boosts-childrens-moods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/?p=1462","title":{"rendered":"Engaging with nature boosts children\u2019s moods"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsocialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk%2F%3Fp%3D1462&amp;count=none&amp;via=SocDevLabRHUL&amp;text=Engaging with nature boosts children\u2019s moods - ECHO-O Lab\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/p><p><a href=\"mailto:D.Harvey@rhul.ac.uk\">Dr Deborah Harvey<\/a> (School of Biological Sciences) and Dr Dawn Watling recently completed a pilot study funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) &#8212; as part of a Valuing Nature Placement &#8212; investigating the effect of engaging with\u00a0nature on <a href=\"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/?attachment_id=1463\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1463\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1463\" src=\"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Biodiversity-pic-2017a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"158\" height=\"158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Biodiversity-pic-2017a.jpg 480w, https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Biodiversity-pic-2017a-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Biodiversity-pic-2017a-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 158px) 100vw, 158px\" \/><\/a>primary school children\u2019s subjective well-being and mood.<\/p>\n<p>Children from eight primary schools took part in the study, going outdoors for an hour a week to do biodiversity-themed activities such as building bug hotels and setting up infra-red trail cams cameras to see the animals that visited their school grounds at night. Preliminary findings showed that\u00a0children&#8217;s mood was significantly improved by going outdoors and engaging with nature.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/?attachment_id=1464\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1464\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1464\" src=\"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Biodiversity-pic-2017b-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"146\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Biodiversity-pic-2017b-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Biodiversity-pic-2017b-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Biodiversity-pic-2017b.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 146px) 100vw, 146px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Deborah presented the results of the study at a Valuing Nature conference in Edinburgh in September 2017, and we are now working to extend the project to carry out a more comprehensive evaluation of a school-based nature engagement programme to improve children\u2019s mood, well-being, attainment, and feelings of connection to nature.<\/p>\n<p>Watch this space for updates or contact <a href=\"mailto:D.Harvey@rhul.ac.uk\">Deborah <\/a>directly (<a href=\"mailto:D.Harvey@rhul.ac.uk\">D.Harvey@rhul.ac.uk<\/a>) if you would like to get involved!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TweetDr Deborah Harvey (School of Biological Sciences) and Dr Dawn Watling recently completed a pilot study funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) &#8212; as part of a Valuing Nature Placement &#8212; investigating the effect of engaging with\u00a0nature on primary school children\u2019s subjective well-being and mood. Children from eight primary schools took part in <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/?p=1462\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1468,"href":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions\/1468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialdevelopment.psychologyresearch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}