Parental perspectives on green schoolyards: advantages outweigh disadvantages, but willingness to help is limited

ABSTRACT

Parental involvement is critical to the successful implementation of green schoolyards. This paper reports results from two surveys that asked a total of 402 parents of children in schools with green and paved schoolyards about their appreciation of the schoolyard, children’s behavior in the schoolyard, (dis)advantages of a green schoolyard, and willingness to become involved. Parents from schools with a green, compared to a paved, schoolyard showed higher appreciation of the schoolyard and more often reported that the schoolyard supports varied play and other behaviors. Parents generally saw more advantages than disadvantages of a green schoolyard, and many parents indicated that disadvantages, such as children coming home dirty, are not very important to them. Parents wanted to be involved in designing a green schoolyard and with schoolyard activities. However, they were less willing to help with maintenance, and their time to help is limited.

KEYWORDS:

• Schoolchildren
• Elementary schools
• Natural play
• Parental views
• Restorative environment
• Sustainable schoolyards

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), grant PRO 4-18.