Abstract
This study examines the relationships between childhood participation in appreciative, consumptive, and abusive types of outdoor activities and the connection to nature, environmental attitudes, and four types of pro-environmental behaviors in high school students. A questionnaire was given to 140 racially mixed, suburban, largely college-bound Texas high school students. The major results indicate a positive correlation between appreciative types of childhood outdoor activities and both connection to nature and environmental citizenship behaviors. Appreciative outdoor activities in childhood were found to predict 10.7% of the variance in connectedness to nature and 12.3% of the variance in adolescent citizenship behaviors. Connectedness to nature was found to predict 8.9% of adolescent citizenship behaviors and was also responsible for 3.8% of the variation in the conservation behaviors of the participants. Results also indicated that those individuals who participated in more consumptive outdoor activities in childhood were slightly less likely to maintain a pro-environmental attitude.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.