Taylor, A.F., F.E. Kuo & W.C. Sullivan, 2001, Coping with ADD: the surprising connection to green play setting, in: Environment and Behavior, , 4
- Author : Taylor, A.F., F.E. Kuo & W.C. Sullivan
- Year : 2001
- Journal/Series : Environment and Behavior
- Volume Number (ANNUAL: Counting Volumes of the Year shown above) : 4
- Pages : 54-77
- Abstract in English : ABSTRACT: Over 2 million children in the United States alone are struggling to cope with a chronic attentional deficit, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). ADD reduces children’s attentional capacity and in doing so, has detrimental effects on many aspects of life. Attention Restoration Theory suggests that contact with everyday nature to be related to attention in adults. Is contact with everyday nature also related to the attentional functioning of children? This study examined whether contact with nature assists attentional functioning in children with ADD. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested: One regarding the immediate after-effects of contact with nature and the other regarding the general effects of nature on severity of a child’s ADD symptoms. Specifically, the authors proposed that 1) Attention deficit symptoms will be more manageable after activities in green settings than after activities in other settings. 2) The greener a child’s everyday environment, the more manageable their deficit symptoms will be in general. Several analyses suggest that contact with nature is systematically related to lessened attention deficit symptoms. Activities nominated as helpful in reducing attention deficit symptoms were disproportionately likely to take place in green outdoor settings. Conversely, activities nominated as exacerbating symptoms were disproportionately likely to place in non-green outdoor settings. Although the greenness of a child’s residential setting was unrelated to the severity of ADD symptoms, the greenness of their play setting was related to symptom severity; ADD symptoms were milder for those children with greener play settings. Children who played in windowless indoor settings had significant more severe symptoms than children who played in grassy outdoor spaces with or without trees did.
- Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder, health, play, children’s play areas, green settings. NOTES from the authors: The acronym ADD will be used throughout this article because this research theoretically hinges on children’s attention deficits. However, the information also applies to ADHD, as ADHD is a broader diagnostic term under which a child can be diagnosed as predominantly inattentive (attention deficit), or inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive.