THE CHILDREN-NATURE RELATIONSHIP: CONTACT, COGNIZATION AND EMOTION
HUANG Xiang1,2
1. South China Ecological Civilization Research Center, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510632, China;
2. Edu-tourism and Recreation Education Research Center, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510632, China
Abstract：Nature can improve children physically and psychologically, as well as their identity and social relationship. The children-nature relationship is noted accelerated literature in children geographies research. However, there is no systematic review to organize the research framework of this particular field. ‘Children's Geographies’ along with other 82 geography journals in SSCI, and 12 geographical journals in CSSCI were employed to be the source database. "nature/natural" and "children/child" were key words to search for literatures. 54 highly related articles were selected after abstract reviewing process out of 113 targeted objects. Literatures related to children-nature relationship booted since 2015. Children's cognition of nature research includes the image of nature by children, as well as school nature and outdoor nature as educational space. Children's affection toward nature research include children's embodied experience of nature, the relationship between children, nature and agency, and factors might influence the children-nature affection. From life course theoretical perspectives, there will be three phases in someone's lifetime, namely the growing-up phase (children and adolescent), mature phase (youth and middle-age), decline phase (aged). This paper tried to understand how human beings contact, cognize and perceive nature growing up from geographical perspective. In this specific research field, researchers can assemble the following element to raise different questions, which are urban and suburban children, normal and disable children, school nature and outdoor nature, usual circumstances and unusual circumstances. Children, agents and nature are the three actors with contact, cognition and emotion as the three research themes in this field.
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