Sociability of the Young People Frequently Involved in Nature Experience in Childhood

Abstract

  This paper examined whether the 13 types of nature experiences in childhood affected the acquisition of sociability of young people regardless their parents’ support and which types of nature experiences contributed more. The subjects’ data was collected from 1,210 high school and university students from 2008 to 2015. We trisected the number of people by the scores of parents’ attitudes towards sociability. In addition, we combined the three groups with the frequency of the nature experiences (four levels). After factor analysis, the factor scores of these 12 groups were compared. Even if their parents’ support was not enough, the sociability of young people who frequently experienced “breeding of insects”, “plant cultivation”, “playing with flowers”, “camping”, “exploration play / building a base”, “pretend play / hide and seek”, “hiking / mountain climbing” and “hills and fields play” was cultivated.