Understanding The Relationship Between Parental Attitude Toward Outdoor Activities And Their Children’s Health-related Quality Of Life:The Mediating Effect Of Outdoor Time And Nature Connectedness

In the context of ecological civilization construction,it has become an important issue to cultivate the next generation who are close to,love and care about nature.Natural experience not only influences the development of children’s pro-environment attitude and behavior,but also plays an important role in children’s physical,psychological and social growth.However,children in China are facing a serious nature deficit,which has led to a decline in the level of children’s natural connectedness.Previous studies have found that parents play a critical role in children’s outdoor activities,their attitudes toward outdoor activities profoundly influence children’s access to the natural environment.This study focused on preschool children aged 3-6 years,and aimed to explore the effects of parental attitude toward children’s outdoor activities on children’s health-related quality of life,as well as to examine the mediating role of children’s outdoor time and nature connectedness.The study also aimed to provide theoretical basis and practical guidance for improving children’s quality of life from the perspective of human-nature relationship.Considering it is difficult for preschool children to report by themselves,and previous studies have already proved the feasibility of parent agent reporting method,this study asked parents to report their children’s outdoor time,nature connectedness and health-related quality of life.In this study,399 parents of preschoolers in Hangzhou,Zhejiang Province were surveyed using the Parent Attitude towards Children’s Outdoor Recreation Scale,the Connectedness to Nature Index for Parents of Preschool Children scale and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory scale.The study clarified the relationship between parental attitude toward children’s outdoor activities,children’s outdoor time,children’s nature connectedness and children’s health-related quality of life.The differences and relationships between these factors were analyzed across demographic variables.The results showed that parental attitudes toward children’s outdoor activities positively predicted children’s health-related quality of life,mainly reflected in the dimensions of physical functioning,social functioning and school functioning.Parental attitudes toward children’s outdoor activities did not predict children’s emotional functioning.Children’s outdoor activity time and natural connection played a chain mediating role between parental attitudes towards children’s outdoor activities and their physical functioning and school functioning.The study suggests that: parents’ main concerns about children’s participation in outdoor activities should be further studied.Adult-oriented publicity are needed to improve positive parental attitudes toward nature and children’s outdoor activities.Parents’ obligation to ensure children’s outdoor time should be clarified in a policy way.Kindergartens need to ensure children’s outdoor activities during school hours and actively cooperate with families in parent-child outdoor activities.To improve children’s health-related quality of life,their nature connectedness should be interfered in different ways through environmental education projects.