School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
PLoS One. 2018 Nov 29;13(11):e0207057. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207057. eCollection 2018.
The 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.
The 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.
Confirmatory 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).
Thus, 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.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02715544. Registered 8 March 2016.
城市环境一直受到批评，因为它促进了“自然缺失”和“儿童与自然脱节”。考虑到接触自然的重要性及其广泛的健康益处，世界各地的许多环境项目都希望（重新）让儿童与自然建立联系。为了评估这些努力的效果，需要有效的工具来衡量与自然的联系（CN），但目前还没有这样的工具，尤其是对于学龄前儿童。
在城市环境（香港）中，对学龄前儿童的父母（CNI-PPC）进行了原始 CN 指数的修改和测试，以评估其内部一致性（n=299）和外部有效性（n=194）。选择《长处和困难问卷》（SDQ）进行发散和收敛分析。采用了常规的测试改编和翻译建议。
验证性因素分析（CFA）显示，16 项量表充分捕捉了四个主要维度：享受自然、对自然的同理心、对自然的责任感和对自然的意识（Cronbach's α 分别为.86、.87、.75 和.80）。当与用于衡量儿童心理功能和识别儿童问题行为的经过验证的 SDQ 进行测试时，CNI-PPC 的三个因素影响了 SDQ 的结果：（1）儿童表现出更多的享受自然，他们表现出的总体困扰和损伤就越少（β=-.64）；（2）儿童对自然的责任感越强，多动（β=-.50）、行为和同伴困难（β=-.62 和 β=-.65）越少，亲社会行为越好（β=.77）；（3）儿童对自然的认识越深入，他们表现出的情绪困难就越少（β=-.51）。解释的方差很大（范围 R2=.42 至.80）。
因此，CNI-PPC 因素与父母感知到的孩子的优点和困难具有有意义和实质性的关联。这表明，CNI-PPC 是一种有效和可靠的工具，可以在儿童无法自我回应的年龄测量与自然的联系。此外，这种简单的工具可以帮助研究人员/从业者更好地理解与自然的联系如何影响儿童的心理功能和幸福感。
ClinicalTrials.gov 标识符：NCT02715544。注册于 2016 年 3 月 8 日。
