CHILDREN AND NATURE: MORE TIME OUTDOORS MEANS MORE EMPATHY

By Martina Notari journalist and naturopath - IG: @martinanotari_ecosofia

In recent years numerous scientific studies have confirmed what ecological wisdom has maintained for centuries: the relationship with nature is not a luxury, but a fundamental factor of human development.

When a child spends time in natural environments, something happens that is not only about the body, but above all about the mind and emotional skills.

According to biophilia, the concept introduced by biologist Edward O. Wilson, human beings are born with an innate predisposition to connect with nature, trees, water, natural light, animals, ecosystems.

Psychologist and trainer Marcella Danon in her essay Clorofillati, biologist Giuseppe Barbiero and psychologist Rita Berto in Introduzione alla biofilia, take up this intuition by showing how contact with the living world activates in the psyche a form of “deep orientation”: nature awakens parts of us that remain asleep in cities. And one of the first abilities to awaken is precisely empathy.

But how does nature spark empathy?

1. Nature regulates the nervous system

Natural environments reduce the activity of the amygdala (the alarm reaction center) and activate the parasympathetic system, responsible for calm, openness and listening. A child who is less on alert is a child more available to others.

2. Nature increases deep attention

   
   

   The Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989) shows that greenery repairs mental fatigue. When the mind is not overloaded, space opens for others: restored attention generates greater empathy.

   
   

3. Nature activates the perception of interconnectedness

   
   

   As Marcella Danon writes, the natural habitat reminds us that we are part of a network of relationships.

   This systemic perception, seeing that each element depends on others, is the basis of complex empathy: feeling that what happens outside resonates inside.

   
   

   When children grow up far from greenery, from the seasons and from living organisms — a condition very widespread today — the opposite happens. American educator Richard Louv has defined symptoms such as anxiety, depression, difficulty concentrating, stress, irrational fears as symptoms of “Nature Deficit Disorder”.

   
   

   Nature is in fact a biological laboratory of empathy. When a child explores a forest, listens to the wind, observes an insect, smells the wet earth, they enter a powerful experience: they feel part of the world. And when you feel part of something, taking care becomes natural.Nature education, as shown by Scandinavian pedagogical models, forest kindergartens, outdoor education and ecopsychology studies, is not just “environmental education”; it is emotional education, relational education, education to humanity.

   
   

   The equation is therefore automatic:

   
   

   More nature = more empathy

   
   

   More distance from nature = more emotional and social fragility.

   
   

   Returning nature to children, and children to nature, is not a romantic gesture. It is an educational, evolutionary and civic urgency.In a world that risks becoming increasingly individualistic, empathy is our most precious asset; nature is the key to protecting it and helping it grow from early childhood.

Bibliography

Louv, Richard. L'ultimo bambino nei boschi, salvare i nostri figli dal deficit di natura. Rizzoli, 2006.

Wilton, Edward O. Biophilia, Harvard University Press, 1984.

Danon, Marcella. Clorofillati. Per un'ecologia della mente. Tecniche Nuove, 2023.

Danon, Marcella. Il Bosco Interiore. Corbaccio, 2011.

Kaplan, Stephen & Kaplan, Rachel. The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective. Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Giuseppe Barbiero, Rita Berto. Introduzione alla biofilia. La relazione con la natura tra genetica e psicologia, Carocci editore, 2016.