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This Research Digest explores how backcountry and wilderness adventures can support physical, psychological, social-emotional and spiritual well-being.

In gardens, children are happy, curious and engaged in both learning and caring for nature — and a well-established body of research shows this. This Research Digest explores how gardens used for therapeutic and educational interventions support an array of positive outcomes.

This Research Digest considers how nature and art can be integrated to support children’s mental health and well-being, connection to nature and environmental literacy.

This Digest highlights research that has examined the interactions between screen time, green time, and children’s health and development. Based on these understandings, a set of research-based practical recommendations are offered to guide families and communities in helping youth establish healthy relationships with screen devices through a variety of approaches aimed at boosting green time.

This Digest explores the developmental and restorative potential of nature for refugee children and others experiencing severe trauma.

In the final Research Digest of 2024, Research Director and Digest editor Cathy Jordan shares exciting developments for the year ahead and offers a look back at the Digests from 2024.

The studies in this Research Digest will get you thinking about how greening school grounds contributes to climate and community resilience — while supporting children’s learning, health and well-being. The Digest covers the idea of using a nature-based solutions approach to greening schoolyards, and offers some recommendations for doing so.

This Digest includes studies that examine participatory design approaches. These approaches provide children and youth with opportunities to influence the development of programs and initiatives. The common themes throughout these approaches are centered on empowering children and communities by balancing distributions of power, and lifting children’s voices.

This Research Digest explores biophilic design – the intentional design of indoor and outdoor spaces to integrate natural elements and patterns into the built environment, with the aim of enhancing well-being. Biophilic design can be applied in a range of settings. In this Digest we focus on schools, libraries, childcare and urban settings where children learn and play.

This Digest explores dimensions of play inequity and strategies to create greater equity.

This Digest focuses on nature as a promoter of resilience in vulnerable children and youth

This Digest explores pathways to environmental stewardship, particularly through connectedness to nature and other nature experiences

This Digest provides practice-relevant recommendations for integrating technology and nature to enhance health, well-being, academic succession, and connection to nature.

This Digest highlights how parents and teachers are important role models in connecting children with nature to promote their environmental stewardship and ease their eco-anxiety.

This Digest presents the numerous benefits of risk-taking in natural environments, while also calling attention to a marked reduction in risky outdoor play opportunities over the past decade.

This digest presents recommendations for addressing adolescent mental health through nature engagement

This Digest explores the community and environmental benefits of green schoolyards.

This Digest focuses on children with special needs and inclusion as a social justice issue.

This back-to-school issue addressed nature and social-emotional learning.

In this Digest, we feature neurobiological assessments and biomarker studies that investigate how nature impacts the brain and nervous system.

The studies in this Digest highlight the role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in restoring culture, enhancing connection to nature, addressing colonialist consciousness and improving health.

This issue of the Digest focuses on youth involvement in the planning and implementation of nature-related initiatives.

This Digest offers evidence-based suggestions for using nature to promote the mental health and resilience of children impacted by adversity.

This issue of the Research Digest focuses on early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS), a relatively new area of interest internationally at the intersection of environmental education (EE), education for sustainable development (ESD) and early childhood education (ECE).

We’ve focused this Digest on lessons learned from green schoolyard projects around the world, including studies from 10 different countries. A dozen evidence-based recommendations for designing and using green schoolyards are offered.

Studies in this Digest were selected to illustrate more inclusive, socially just, and participatory approaches to research on children and nature. These approaches address increased diversity and pluralism in research, the use of culturally sensitive data collection tools and strategies, as well as children’s right to have their voices heard.

This Digest highlights research relating to inequities in opportunities for children’s engagement with nature. Included are studies that (1) raise awareness of inequities, (2) demonstrate the potential of increased nature engagement in narrowing disparities in health and well-being, and (3) provide examples of specific initiatives designed to address inequities in children’s access to nature.

The studies in this Digest highlight the importance of nature for the culture, identity, and health of Indigenous people as well as some of the challenges they experience navigating Western culture and the effects of climate change. This Digest also presents a number of studies that examine the critical role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in restoring culture, connection to nature, health, and resilience for both Native and non-Native individuals.

In this compilation, we gather studies from previous Research Digests that cover the benefits of green schoolyards and outdoor learning.

Studies in this Digest focus on the negative impact of climate change awareness on children’s mental health and possible interventions for addressing this concern. Related issues and specific intervention activities are also discussed.