“If there is no nature, there is no happiness” : Primary schoolchildren’s perspectives of nature and environmental issues.

Abstract: Children’s relationship to nature has had a place within research on society and culture and continues to garner attention. With a growing environmental crisis, understanding humans’ relationships to nature is imperative. Hence, research on children’s relationship to nature is of interest not only in order to better understand childhoods, but how this relationship to nature is expressed by children in relation to the growing environmental crisis. Since children are members and potential leaders of the future, as well as caretakers of the earth, it is essential that their voices are heard and understood on this topic. This research asks how nature plays an important role in their lives, how children perceive this relationship with nature, how they understand environmental issues and their role in sustainability.  Findings contribute on how children view and relate to nature from their own perspectives and can contribute to understanding how society and adults can better facilitate this relationship through experiences and engagement in environmental conservation. To add to the knowledge base of how children relate to nature, I conducted thirteen interviews with children at an international school in Stockholm, Sweden, with children between the ages of eight and nine.  Methodologically, I used semi-structured interviews as I engaged the children outside in the school playground. The themes that emerged from the data were nature as being animated, nature as a resource (for playing, for well-being, for social connection, and for learning), and nature as threatened. Results indicate that previous research showing the beneficial relationship children have with nature was correlated with what the children had to say in this study. The children expressed concern with the environmental crisis and conveyed the importance nature has in their childhoods and their lives.