Effects of Nature Kindergarten Attendance on Children's Functioning

Psychological Benefits of Attending Forest School for Preschool Children: a Systematic Review

“…Children in nature kindergarten showed higher levels of nature relatedness compared to those of indoor preschools (p < 0.05). In contrast, Müller et al (2017) did not find significant differences between outdoor and indoor schools with regard to nature relatedness (p = 0.22, η p 2 = 0.02). Both of these studies (Elliot et al, 2014;Müller et al, 2017) found no significant differences in environmentally responsible behavior between children in nature preschools and indoor preschools.…”

“…Finally, two studies (Fyfe-Johnson et al, 2019;Müller et al, 2017) measured moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) using accelerometers, a non-invasive method for assessing circadian rhythms and movements, for 5 consecutive days. There were, however, no significant differences between the outdoor and indoor groups.…”

“…Interestingly, teachers also reported that children in the outdoor education program significantly increased their ability to pretend play, while those in the indoor preschool did not (p < 0.01, η p 2 = 0.58). In the study of Müller et al (2017), parents and teachers were asked to assess child social behavior using the Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS; Gresham & Elliott, 1990), which assesses the social skills domains of cooperation, assertion, responsibility (parent form only), empathy (student form only), and self-control, and a self-reported measure for assessing the presence of externalizing (aggression, hyperactivity) or internalizing problems (anxiety, sadness). Although there were no significant differences between parental ratings of children attending nature and indoor preschools for the SSRS domains (assertiveness: p = 0.01, η p 2 = 0.13; social responsibility: p = 0.03, η p 2 = 0.11; cooperation: p = 0.06, η p 2 = 0.08; self-control: p = 0.29, η p 2 = 0.02; externalizing behavior: p = 0.25, η p 2 = 0.03; internalizing behavior: p = 0.68, η p 2 = 0.00), teachers' ratings reported that children in nature preschool showed higher scores in the cooperation (p = < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.20) and self-control (p = < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.32) domains.…”

“…The reviewed studies used a variety of instruments and measures to evaluate the benefits of forest preschools for children: seven studies include self-reported questionnaires, seven studies used cognitive and behavioral tasks, four studies included ad hoc measurements, and four studies adopted observational scales of child behaviors (see Supplementary Material, Part 2). Only two studies used objective methods (i.e., accelerometers) to assess children's physical activities (Müller et al, 2017;Fyfe-Johnson et al, 2019). Most of the studies (11 studies: Cordiano et al, 2019;Elliot et al, 2014;Ernst & Burcak, 2019;Fjørtoft & Sageie, 2000;Fjørtoft, 2001;Fjørtoft, 2004;Fyfe-Johnson et al, 2019;Lerstrup et al, 2017;Müller et al, 2017;Wojciehowski & Ernst, 2018;Zamzow & Ernst, 2018) examined the outcomes of interest through the administration of questionnaires and tasks to the children.…”

“…Only two studies used objective methods (i.e., accelerometers) to assess children's physical activities (Müller et al, 2017;Fyfe-Johnson et al, 2019). Most of the studies (11 studies: Cordiano et al, 2019;Elliot et al, 2014;Ernst & Burcak, 2019;Fjørtoft & Sageie, 2000;Fjørtoft, 2001;Fjørtoft, 2004;Fyfe-Johnson et al, 2019;Lerstrup et al, 2017;Müller et al, 2017;Wojciehowski & Ernst, 2018;Zamzow & Ernst, 2018) examined the outcomes of interest through the administration of questionnaires and tasks to the children. There are also studies that investigated the differences between children attending forest schooling and indoor schooling through reports from parents (4 studies: Barrable & Booth, 2020b;Choi et al, 2014;Cordiano et al, 2019;Müller et al, 2017) and teachers (7 studies: Agostini et al, 2018;Cordiano et al, 2019;Ernst & Burcak, 2019;Frenkel et al, 2019;Fyfe-Johnson et al, 2019;Mårtensson et al, 2009;Müller et al, 2017).…”