CAREER: A longitudinal study of the emotional and behavioral processes of Environmental Identity Development among rural and non-rural Alaskan children

Despite the importance for human development of childhood experiences with the natural world, little research has focused on young children's emotional encounters with nature or how these experiences shape their values, perceptions, and behaviors. This research will systematically examine children's behavioral and emotional reactions to nature over a five-year period.

The project will examine how family, culture, and geographical locations shape the manner in which children form their identity in nature. The project will enhance understanding of how children learn to regulate their emotions in nature, and it will expand knowledge about the role education plays in shaping how children develop empathy and care for living and non-living aspects of their natural environments.

The project will highlight the voices and perspectives of young Alaska Native and non-Native children living in Alaska, thereby, broadening participation in socio-ecological science in Polar Regions. The approaches used in this project offer a framework for participatory and naturalistic developmental research involving young children. Videos of the nature tours will be transformed into video lessons that will be shared with the public as a means of illustrating the role of culture in Alaska Native children's learning about, and interactions with, the environment.

This project will enhance understanding of children's Environmental Identity Development by examining the following research questions: What informs Alaskan children's emotions and behaviors during outdoor wilderness experiences? How do children's experiences in the Alaska wilderness affect development over time? Research will occur in rural and non-rural Alaska during the spring and autumn seasons.

The study will include children from a small isolated Alaskan village where the majority of families are of Alaska Native descent, and where access to consumer goods is limited. The study will also examine the experiences of non-Native children growing up in an Alaskan city. Because consumer goods are readily available in the city, these children may or may not learn hunting and gathering skills.

This study will use a family survey to understand the different types of experiences that rural and non-rural Alaskan children have in the wilderness. Children's drawings and descriptions of their drawings will be collected to learn about their favorite outdoor activities. Additionally, the study will use child-led nature tours.

The tours will involve wearable cameras in order to examine children's experiences participating in outdoor activities with family members as well as their wilderness explorations with classmates. Data will be collected from rural and non-rural children at 4-5-years of age and again when they are 7-8-years old. In this way, the researcher will assess how children's emotional and behavioral interactions with nature develop through family and educational experiences over time.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.