When Julie Ernst’s daughter was 8, she often played in a small stick fort behind their house. When Ernst went outside to get her daughter for dance class one day, she saw her “frosting” mud cupcakes. “This is so satisfying,” she heard her daughter quietly say to herself.
By Jamie Friedlander Serrano
The average American today spends nearly 90 percent of their time indoors, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet research indicates that children benefit greatly from time spent in nature; that not only does it improve their cognition, mood, self-esteem and social skills, but it can also make them physically healthier and less anxious.
“Outdoor time for children is beneficial not just for physical health but also mental health for a multitude of reasons,” says Janine Domingues, a senior psychologist in the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute. “It fosters curiosity and independence. It helps kids get creative about what they can do … and then just moving around and expending energy has a lot of physical health benefits.”
Thriving on multiple levels
Being outdoors goes hand in hand with active play, which can improve physical health and coordination, says Stephen Cook, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics and a professor of pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. It also increases children’s exposure to vitamin D, which the body produces in response to sunlight and which is necessary for growth and bone health.
There’s a robust body of research supporting the mental health benefits of children being in nature.
Numerous studies have found that kids living in greener environments have better moods, higher self-esteem and more resilience, says Sarah Milligan-Toffler, president and CEO of the Children and Nature Network, an organization that helps connect children to the outdoors. Research has also found that long-term exposure to nature reduces stress and anxiety in children and lowers their levels of aggression, she says.
Nature time can also lead to cognitive improvements: One 2022 systematic review published in the journal Educational Psychology Review looked at various nature-based interventions in 5- to 18-year-olds. Researchers found that engaging in nature can improve kids’ working memory and attention.
One small study even found that children who grew up in greener spaces had increased volume in the areas of the brain that deal with memory and attentiveness.
There are social benefits, too: Another 2022 systematic review found that time outdoors can improve prosocial behaviors, including sharing, cooperating and comforting others.
Research has found that nature can be particularly helpful for those who’ve had adverse childhood experiences, Milligan-Toffler says. Such experiences can include growing up with poverty, abuse or violence. One 2023 study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology looked at how making art in nature affected about 100 children in a low-income neighborhood in England. Their confidence, self-esteem and agency all improved.
The poet Mary Oliver once said she often escaped an abusive childhood by spending time in the nearby woods: “I think it saved my life. … I got saved by the beauty of the world.”
More structured childhoods
People from older generations often tell stories about spending their childhood riding their bikes around the neighborhood, not surfing tablets on the couch. This shift isn’t just anecdotal — children worldwide are spending less time outdoors than they used to, Milligan-Toffler says.
There are a multitude of reasons for this, many of which were explored in Richard Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder.” (Louv co-founded the Children and Nature Network.)
Technology has, of course, played a role. Children 8 to 12 are estimated to spend four to six hours a day watching or using screens, and teens up to nine hours, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Children’s average roaming radius, or how far a child can venture from their parents, has also gotten smaller. Plus, children’s time is more scheduled and programmed than it was generations ago, Milligan-Toffler says.
Children spend more time in day care and other formal care environments than they did decades ago, says Rebecca Colbert, director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Early Childhood Health Outdoors (ECHO) program.
“They don’t have the kinds of daily freedoms and access that previous generations had for just spending unprogrammed time outdoors in their community, in their front yard or with their extended family,” Colbert says.
For all these reasons, it’s important for even very young children to have access to nature where they already are, says Nilda Cosco, a research professor and director of programs at North Carolina State University’s Natural Learning Initiative. “The preschool years are so foundational for children that their environment should offer the opportunity to be in touch with nature,” she says.
Forest kindergartens, a European trend in which young children spend their entire day outdoors, even in inclement weather, are becoming more common in the United States. Ernst, who studies nature preschools, says the most noticeable thing about them is the children’s joy.
“You see children interacting well with others, helping others and showing care and kindness,” she says. “You see children deeply engaged in what they’re doing. There’s this feeling of aliveness that’s just unmistakable.”
How to help children get more green time
Experts offer this advice for helping your children reap the benefits of nature.
- Start small. You don’t need to visit a national park — a simple walk around the neighborhood will do. To young kids, “three trees can feel like a forest,” Colbert says.
- Let your love of nature show. Children model what their parents do. “If as a parent we show positive attitudes toward spending time in nature, and actually spend time in nature ourselves, children may follow suit,” Ernst says.
- Put your phone away. It’s important to engage with your children outdoors — don’t just sit and surf your phone while they’re running around, Cook says. “I think a really important piece of being outside is putting away all technology,” he says.
- Invite other children. Ernst has noticed that when her kids have other children in the neighborhood to play with outside, they’re happier, braver and more engaged. “Their creativity and sense of adventure feed off one another,” she says.
