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Are City Kids Missing Out on Nature?

- Kathryn L. Hand, Claire Freeman, Philip Seddon, Mariano Recio, Aviva Stein, and Yolanda Van Heezik

The first theory is called the biophilia hypothesis. Proposed in the 1980s, it suggests that people have an in-born preference for nature ("bio-"), and an attraction (-"philia") to natural things or places. The idea is that those areas that were richer in plants and animals were better places for humans to survive and thrive. This theory suggests that our ancestors developed an attraction to natural spaces, where they spent more time and were more likely to settle, and that this attraction remains in modern humans despite our drastic change in habitat.
The second theory is the nature deficit disorder. This theory came from the idea that children today are spending less time out in nature, and as a result are suffering more and more from problems such as difficulty concentrating, high stress levels, and poor physical health. What is more, not spending as much time with nature means that children today are not learning as much about nature, nor establishing a connection to it.

License information: CC BY 4.0
MPAA: G
Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00071

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