A new 16-item parent questionnaire (CNI-PPC) to measure “connectedness to nature’ in very young children has been recently developed by Sobko and Brown <ref name= Sobko, URL The original CN Index was modified and tested among Parents of Preschool Children (CNI-PPC) in an urban setting (Hong Kong) for its internal consistency and external validity. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the 16-item scale adequately captures four major dimensions: enjoyment of nature, empathy for nature, sense of responsibility, awareness of nature. The new questionnaire was tested against the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a well-established measurement of psychological well-being and children’s behaviour problems. The results revealed that the children who had a closer connection with nature had less distress, less hyperactivity, & fewer behavioural and emotional difficulties, and improved pro-social behaviour. Interestingly, children who took greater responsibility towards the nature had fewer peer difficulties. The results give a new possibility for investigating the link between the outdoor environment and well-being in pre-school children. Thus, CNI-PPC factors have meaningful and substantive associations with the strengths and difficulties parents perceived in their children. This indicates the CNI-PPC is a valid and reliable instrument to measure CN at an age when children cannot respond themselves. Further, this simple tool could help researchers/practitioners to better understand how the connectedness to nature affect child psychological functioning and wellbeing.
A new 16-item parent questionnaire (CNI-PPC) to measure “connectedness to nature’ in very young children has been recently developed by Sobko and BrownSobko, T., Jia, Z., Brown, G., 2018 URL The original CN Index was modified and tested among Parents of Preschool Children (CNI-PPC) in an urban setting (Hong Kong) for its internal consistency and external validity. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the 16-item scale adequately captures four major dimensions: enjoyment of nature, empathy for nature, sense of responsibility, awareness of nature. The new questionnaire was tested against the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a well-established measurement of psychological well-being and children’s behaviour problems. The results revealed that the children who had a closer connection with nature had less distress, less hyperactivity, & fewer behavioural and emotional difficulties, and improved pro-social behaviour. Interestingly, children who took greater responsibility towards the nature had fewer peer difficulties. The results give a new possibility for investigating the link between the outdoor environment and well-being in pre-school children. Thus, CNI-PPC factors have meaningful and substantive associations with the strengths and difficulties parents perceived in their children. This indicates the CNI-PPC is a valid and reliable instrument to measure CN at an age when children cannot respond themselves. Further, this simple tool could help researchers/practitioners to better understand how the connectedness to nature affect child psychological functioning and wellbeing.
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Brown <ref name= Sobko,
BrownSobko, T., Jia, Z., Brown, G., 2018