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Children’s Relationship to Plants among
Primary School Children in Finland:
Comparisons by Location and Gender
Taina Laaksoharju
1,3
and Erja Rappe
2
A
DDITIONAL INDEX WORDS
. rural, urban, nature-child relationship, horticultural
intervention
S
UMMARY
. There is considerable evidence that children in modern society are losing
their contact with nature and, more precisely, with green plants. Is this also the case
in Finland, a northern country famous for its forests and wild nature? This study
examines the relationship of 9- to 10-year-old Finnish schoolchildren with the
green environment and plants. The data were gathered by a questionnaire
comprising structured and open-ended questions. The focus of the research was on
two comparisons: first, on the nature and child relationship in rural and urban
neighborhoods and, second, among boys and girls. Participants in the study
amounted to a total of 76 children, 42 in the Helsinki suburb area and 34 in
Paltamo. The results suggested that the children in rural surroundings had closer
contact with nature than their urban associates. For example, the children of
Paltamo reported to know the trees better, and considered human beings to be part
of nature more often (100% vs. 76% of the pupils in Helsinki,
P
=
0,003). Similarly,
the results showed that girls in the study (N
=
48) were more interested in plants
than boys (N
=
28). For the girls, the beauty and joy of plants was important,
whereas the boys appreciated plants as the source of life. After the pre-questioning,
thechildrenofHelsinkiparticipatedinanin-classhorticulturalinterventionand10
days later, answered a similar questionnaire again. The results of the open-ended
questions revealed that equally to children in other Western countries, Finnish
children may also be in danger of losing their direct contact with the natural
environment.Itwascommontopassfreetimeinorganizedsportssuchashockeyor
football (boys), or by just walking and talking with friends (girls). Rural children
told that they still built huts, pick berries, and climb trees, whereas urban children
played in parks and city groves. The results suggest that it is essential to research
furtherthechildren’sownexperiencesifwearetounderstand,andsubsequently,to
enhance, the crucial role of the green environment in their lives. Horticultural
interventions can be effective starting points to add to children’s knowledge,
affection, andinterest towardgreenery,but itishighly recommendedthattheytake
place outdoors rather than indoors.
U
rbanization and digitaliza-
tion has led to changes in
the ways people spend their
free time. The role of direct contact
with nature has appeared to decrease
in modern society. In direct contact
with nature, a child is exposed to the
immense diversity and opportunities
(in environmental psychology known
as affordances) that only nature has
to offer. Direct contact with nature
in childhood has been increasingly
replaced by more indirect and sym-
bolic ways of becoming familiar with
nature, such as television programs or
visiting theme parks (Kellert, 2009).
Nowadays, 8- to 12-year-old chil-
dren participate in organized activ-
ities and have less spare time in
Finland (Keskinen, 2001), as well
as globally in Western societies
(Louv, 2008). Growing vegetables,
berries, or even green plants has be-
come less common with each genera-
tion, especially in urban areas and with
a modern life style. Physical activities
outdoors in the green environment,
however, have been proven to im-
prove mental health and overall well-
being among adults and elderly
people suffering from depression,
anxiety, or other mental health prob-
lems (Callaghan, 2004; Rappe, 2005;
Ulrich, 1999). On the other hand,
the need for activities in the natural
environment may be even more vital
for children. Not only physical, but
also cognitive and affective develop-
ment, which take place in natural
settings in childhood, are claimed to
be necessary for well being, as well as
awareness and appreciation of nature
(Kellert, 2009). Such activity has
been said to be especially important
around the primary school age (6–10
years), which is the most vital period
for the development of inherent ten-
dencies (Cobb, 1977; Kellert, 2009;
Moore, 1986).
Several researchers recognize that
natural environments relieve stress and
have a restorative effect on people
(Cooper Marcus and Barnes, 1995;
Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989; Lewis,
1996; Ulrich, 1999). It has been
reported in a number of studies that
green spaces are beneficial, even cru-
cial for a child’s well being in cities
(Kuo, 2001; Taylor et al., 1998;
Taylor and Kuo, 2009). In Finland,
Korpela et al. (2002) have studied
urban children’s environments and
their favorite places in the city of
Tampere. They found that over half
of the children used their favorite
places for cognitive restoration and
one-third for emotion regulation. Ur-
ban greenery can thus be important
to a child’s well being. However, the
children’s freedom to explore nature
by themselves is often restricted in
Western urban societies (Kytta
̈
, 2004;
Prezza, 2007).
Even though Finland is well
known for its wild and relatively un-
spoiled nature, still not very much is
known about our children’s contact
Research
Reports
•
August 2010 20(4)
689
with nature. In Finland, every citizen
still has easy access to nature. Helsinki,
the capital city, is surrounded by the
sea, forests, and parks, and these are
freely accessible to everyone. Small
groves nearby are common in the sub-
urbs. Nevertheless, concern about the
lack of contact with the natural envi-
ronment is current in Finland as well.
An important study by Kytta
̈
(2004)
focused on the possibilities that 8- to
9-year-old children have to explore
nature by themselves. The research
was conducted in eight neighborhoods
with varying levels of urbanization in
Finland and in the Belarus region. The
results showed that in the urban envi-
ronment, children’s spontaneous, par-
ticipatory activities in nature have
decreased, while the ‘‘glasshouse’’ type
of non-interacting, looking outside at
the environment without actually par-
ticipating in it, has increased (Kytta
̈
,
2004). A recent study on 9- to 13-year-
old urban Helsinki dwellers showed
that these children would rather spend
their free time in shopping centers and
public swimming pools, or inside
homes in front of the television, at a
computer, or using other modern me-
dia rather than spending leisure time
out of doors (Stenvall, 2009).
Pre-school children are usually
interested in the natural environ-
ment and explore natural elements
during most of their time outdoors
(Heerwagen and Orians, 2002).
Small toddlers are found to spend
more time exploring their physical
environment than socializing with
their parents (Heerwagen and Orians,
2002). Furthermore, according to
Kellert (2002), children need various
(direct, indirect, and vicarious) contacts
with nature to develop their personality
harmoniously. In his research, Kellert
has brought up Wilson’s (1984) con-
cept of ‘‘biophilia,’’ which means the
human being’s inherent tendency to-
ward the appreciation of nature.
Urban societies may have
changed children’s direct contact with
nature into one that is more abstract
and virtual. The extinction of direct
contact to nature may lead to a cycle of
disaffection, which, among other
things, may cause ‘‘environmental
generational amnesia’’ (Kahn, 2002).
This concept means that children be-
come used to a poor and polluted
environment to the degree that it
becomes everyday life, a norm. Louv
(2008) has developed the well-known
concept of nature-deficit disorder,
whichisanargumentthatinthecase
that children do not spend enough
time playing in a natural environment,
the lack of nature experiences may lead
to accumulated attention deficit hy-
peractivity disorder (ADHD) or other
similar behavioral problems. The fact
that the exposure of children with
ADHD to nature can improve their
behavior strengthens this view (Taylor
et al., 2001; Taylor and Kuo, 2009).
The growing anxiety about chil-
dren’s lack of contact with the living
environment has led to many types
of action throughout the Western
world. A wide range of interventions
to get children out into natural sur-
roundings have emerged, especially
in school education (Blair, 2009).
Meanwhile, teaching science and other
subjects according to the curriculum in
so-called non-formal learning environ-
ments—forest schools and school gar-
dens—is to improve a child’s missing
or insufficient relationship to nature.
For example, in Texas and California,
the state departments of education
encourage the schools to set up garden-
ing programs (Blair, 2009). Although
such activities have been initiated,
research on the subject is still insuffi-
cient. Mainly, the focus of the current
study has been on teachers’ or par-
ents’ points of view considering learn-
ing or behavior. According to Blair
(2009), the research on school gar-
dening has mainly concentrated on
the positive learning outcomes, while
rigorous studies about children’s
prejudices, knowledge, and attitudes
toward greenery and plants are scarce.
To plan successful interventions, the
first step is to study the present-day
relationship between children and
nature—and probably children are
the best informants because they are
the experts in the matter.
Present study
This article examines the role that
greenery plays in the lives of 9- to 10-
year-old Finnish school children. The
motivation for this research emerged
from the need to examine the general
assumption that children are nowadays
just sitting inside in front of the tele-
vision or a computer screen instead
playing outdoors. While expressing
such assumptions, do we consider this
something that children have chosen
to do, or something they end up doing
when there are no other options avail-
able? Through this research, we want
to find out what the role of vegetation
in the lives of urban and rural children
is. Is it true that children are not
interested in plants or playing out-
doors? In the study, the concept of
‘‘nature’’ encompasses all places out-
doors that includes vegetation.
The purpose of this study was to
investigate how 9- to 10-year-old
schoolchildren see the role of plants
and natural environments in their
lives. As a research subject, this age
group is especially interesting because
in the field of environmental educa-
tion and psychology, it is said to be
the age when children’s environmen-
tal sensitiveness and awareness can
still be affected, as well as affiliations
by nature (Palmer, 1998). We fo-
cused on the present nature-child re-
lationship among Finnish children
from two different residential back-
grounds. We wanted to find out if
children in rural surroundings were
in some way more familiar with the
vegetation and nature than their coun-
terparts living in urban neighborhood.
Furthermore, we were interested
whether there are differences in the
present-day nature-child relationship
between the genders. Gendered dif-
ferences in behavior are self-evident in
this age group, but we wanted to study
whether boy’s and girl’s relations with
vegetation differed equally. Even
though ethnicity is also an interesting
aspect, it was left out of this study
design because we did not have
enough immigrants in the focus
groups.
In Finland, there is not much
knowledge about how modern chil-
dren regard nature in their own lives.
Consequently, we wanted to study if
an indoor classroom hands-on horti-
cultural learning project had an effect
on knowledge about plants, and if it
had an impact on understanding in
terms of the individual meanings
attached to vegetation. Thus, a sec-
ondary aim was to study an indoor
This study was supported by the Maiju and Yrjo
̈
Rikala
Foundation.
I thank my dear friend Venla Syka
̈ri
for helping with
the scientific English writing.
1
Department of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 27,
C-House, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
2
Supervisor and Project Manager, Gardening and the
Environment, The Martha Association, Marttakeskus,
Lapinlahdenkatu 3 A, 00180 Helsinki, Finland
3
Corresponding author. E-mail: taina.laaksoharju@
helsinki.fi.
690
•
August 2010 20(4)
R
ESEARCH
R
EPORTS
horticultural intervention in urban
surroundings to assess the role of
hands-on education in bringing chil-
dren and greenery closer together.
Materials and methods
P
ARTICIPANTS OF THE STUDY
.
The data presented here were col-
lected during 2006 in two locations
in Finland: Mustakivi School, a primary
school in Helsinki, and Kirkonkyla
̈
School in Paltamo. Paltamo is situated
in the northeastern part of Finland
(Kainuu region), 600 km north of
Helsinki. Mustakivi School is situated
in a typical suburban area with high
buildings, a shopping mall, yet parks
and the seashore are close to residents.
On the other hand, Paltamo is a small
rural town surrounded by forests and
agricultural fields. All participants in
the study were
10-year-old children
going on to fourth grade. A total of
25% of the children in Helsinki were
immigrants, whereas in Paltamo, none
of the students were immigrants. In
total, 76 children took part in the
study: 42 children in Helsinki (26 girls
and 16 boys) and 34 in Paltamo (22
girls and 12 boys).
A similar questionnaire was used
in both places to collect the data. All
questions are represented in Fig. 1.
Each participant answered the ques-
tions (total 23) in the questionnaire
simultaneously at the beginning of
a normal school day. The question-
naire was designed to collect infor-
mation on different aspects that may
involve vegetation in a child’s life.
The questionnaire included structured
‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no’’ questions (18) and four
open-ended questions. The structured
questions concerning the children’s
opinions and earlier experiences about
plants were used to analyze the cur-
rent child-plant relationship. By open-
ended questions, data were gathered
to understand children’s relationship
to nature: what they actually did out-
doors and finally, how they spent this
time playing in natural places. Addi-
tionally, there was a drawing task:
‘‘draw a tree or a flower.’’ The assign-
ment was added to analyze the capabil-
ity of a 10-year-old child to draw a plant
and represent its anatomy. The drawing
task gave additional information about
tree recognition: how well a drawing of
a tree could be recognized as a certain
species assessed by the first author.
Two groups of pupils in Helsinki
took part in a horticultural intervention
after the questionnaire (N = 42). The
intervention called the ‘‘fruit bomb’’
consisted of four themed 2-h educa-
tional occasions inside a classroom.
Each occasion included theoretical
information about fruit plants and a
hands-on session that began from
sowing a chosen fruit seed and it
ended when participants were al-
lowed to take the plant home. The
role of the intervention was assessed
in the post-questionnaire among the
urban participants. In post-question-
naire, the questions were similar to
those on the first one, but the last four
open-ended questions were different.
In the non-structural questions, chil-
dren had an opportunity to give feed-
back on the intervention: what they
liked or disliked, and, in addition, one
question about the meaning of the
plants to the child (‘‘What do plants
mean to you?’’).
In analyzing the results, qualita-
tive and quantitative methods were
used (mixed methodology). Compar-
isons between girls and boys and rural
and urban children were analyzed
with SPSS (version 13; SPSS, Chi-
cago), using paired cross tabulation
Fig. 1. Questionnaire used in the study. Questions that are in bold are represented
in the results. Pre-questioning was exactly the same in rural Finland (Paltamo) and
in Helsinki (questions 1–23). In Helsinki, questions 20 through 23 were replaced
after the horticultural intervention ‘‘fruit bomb’’ to questions 20 through 26.
Questions 1 through 5 and 13 through 17 gave background information about
child’s experiences and contacts with vegetation. The answers to questions 6
through 8, 12, and 18 were statistically tested (chi-square test) and are represented
in Tables 1 and 3. The frequencies of the answers to questions 21 and 22 are
represented in Table 2. Question 26 answers were classified into categories, the
examples of the typical answers in Table 4.
•
August 2010 20(4)
691
and a chi-square test. Tests were used
to measure the significance of differ-
ences among the groups. The quali-
tative data analyses of the open-ended
answers were classified into themes
and categories that emerged from the
responses.
Results
Results are presented in three
sections. First, the differences between
the two compared groups, urban and
rural, and second, the contrast in
voices between girls and boys. Finally,
the findings about the children of
Helsinki after the horticultural inter-
vention are represented and discussed.
D
IFFERENCES AMONG RURAL AND
URBAN CHILDREN
.
The results indicate
that the relationship with nature and
green plants is considerably different
between rural and urban children.
According to their own assessment,
the participants in rural surroundings
(Paltamo, Kainuu, in the middle part
of Finland) knew trees by name better
than their urban associates in Hel-
sinki. The result was confirmed in
statistical analysis and in the drawings,
as shown in Fig. 2. Rural children
agreed to the claim ‘‘I know the trees
of the forest by their names’’ with the
answer of ‘‘yes’’ more often than their
urban counterparts (Table 1). From
the Paltamo drawings, it was also easy
to recognize such common trees in
Finland as pine (
Pinus
spp.), birch
(
Betula
spp.), spruce (
Picea
spp.),
apple (
Malus
spp.), and winter-
garbed, broad-leaved trees. On the
other hand, drawings made by the
Helsinki children represented only
two recognizable species: a spruce
and an apple tree (Fig. 2). The chil-
dren from the rural environment also
included the human being as part of
nature more often than their coun-
terparts in the Helsinki suburban area
(Table 1).
Answers to open-ended question
about favorite places and activities
outdoors clarified the role of nature
in everyday life of the children in
Finland. The natural environment
had a larger role in favorite games in
Paltamo than in Helsinki (Table 2).
The notions of visiting berry bushes
and building huts in the woods came
up only in the rural children’s an-
swers. In addition, the rural children
described the natural environments in
a more illustrative manner than the
pupils in Helsinki: ‘‘my favorite place
is warm, near the flowers and beauti-
ful places’’; ‘‘on the top of the rock
and beside there is a bush and na-
ture.’’ Parks as favorite places were
mentioned only in Helsinki, but then
again, forests were popular in both
groups. Interestingly, urban children
answered that their favorite place is
a forest more often than did children
in rural environment (40.4% urban,
17.6% rural).
Surprisingly a total of nine pupils
of 76 (12%) reported that they do not
play outdoors at all. From the rural
surroundings, three boys and one girl
answered that they do not play: ‘‘I do
not play, but I stay outdoors.’’ Of the
urban, four girls and one boy shared
the situation. On the other hand,
hanging out with friends was a typical
answer, especially among city girls.
D
IFFERENCES BETWEEN GENDERS
.
Boys and girls were also significantly
different in terms of their experience
and interest in green plants. Girls
were more interested in plants in
general (Table 3), and they were also
more eager to learn about plants than
boys. Boys saw themselves as more
independent of nature; over 30%
thought that they could live without
vegetation.
The meaning of plants to chil-
dren varied from pure pleasure (in
many of the girls’ answers) to appre-
ciation of the fact that plants actually
provide for human life and well being
on the planet. The evident difference
between girls and boys came up like-
wise in the open-ended question
‘‘What do plants mean to you?’’
(Table 4). This question was asked only
in Helsinki and after a horticultural
intervention (growing a fruit plant
from seed), so the total number of
responses was only 42. In their an-
swers, boys explained that plants are
meaningful mainly for nutrition and
general living conditions, whereas
girls appreciated the beauty of flowers
and plants as a whole. The most com-
mon answer, independent of gender,
was that: ‘‘they matter to me a lot’’ or
that: ‘‘plants are important to me,’’ in
a total of 13 of 42 (30.9%). Some
improved understanding about the
meaning of vegetation could be due
to the effect of the horticultural in-
tervention. For example, before the
intervention, 24% of the urban children
considered that human beings are not
part of nature, and afterward, only 7%
thought so. Also some improvement
was seen in the general knowledge of
plants. Before the intervention, girls
mentioned, on average, 2.6 facts that
are essential to plant growth (such as
light, water, soil, and nutrition), and
afterward, they mentioned 2.8 facts
(boys were similar, with a before av-
erage of 2.0 and after 2.3).
Fig. 2. The 9- to 10-year-old participants of the study were asked to draw a tree or
a flower. These are two examples of the most similar to real tree drawings. On the
left, a rural boy’s drawing of a common pine tree. On the right, his urban
counterpart representing spruce and, presumably, a deciduous tree.
692
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ESEARCH
R
EPORTS