Urban living creates disconnect between people and nature, and there is growing concern that this disconnect is leading to apathy toward wildlife conservation. With average Americans spending only 1–5% of their time outdoors, the need to increase awareness and mobilize alliances with the general public to achieve conservation goals is becoming increasingly important. Increasing the prevalence of pro-environmental behaviors is necessary to mitigate anthropogenic habitat loss, and increasing connection to nature (CTN) in individuals can be an effective method to bring about pro-environmental behavior. We tested the efficacy of bird feeders as tools to increase CTN in 6th graders and their parents at two schools in Arizona and Tennessee because feeders are inexpensive and easy to maintain, encountered at home on a regular basis, and likely to be enjoyed considering ~45% of Americans feed birds. We visited seven classrooms that did not get feeders (control), and eight that received feeders and a one-month supply of seed (treatment). We administered CTN questionnaires (9-pt Likert) during classroom visits, and another questionnaire one month later. We predicted that both students and their parents in the treatment group would show significantly higher scores for connection to nature compared to the control group.
Results/Conclusions
Parents and students who previously-owned a feeder had significantly greater CTN than those who did not (t75=-3.8, p<0.001, meanstudent=6.9±0.2SE vs. 6.1±0.1SE, respectively; t96=-2.0, p=0.05, meanparent=7.0±0.2SE vs. 6.6±0.1SE, respectively). For participants not previously owning a feeder, results of mixed effects repeated measures models suggested CTN in all students did not change (n=159, p=0.21), while treatment parents’ CTN increased significantly by ~0.5 Likert points more than for control parents (n=93, p=0.02). Self-assessments revealed that all students did not believe they increased CTN (F2=1.7, p=0.20) while treatment parents believed they (F2=5.9, p=0.004; mean control vs. treatment=4.5±0.4SE vs. 6.2±0.3SE) and their children (F2=6.2, p=0.003; mean control vs. treatment=4.6±0.4SE vs. 6.5±0.4SE) increased CTN. Only 30% of enrolled adults completed the entire study, limiting the power of our analyses. We describe challenges of this type of research, and conclude that teacher enthusiasm and the ability to distribute surveys to parents electronically would improve participation in similar studies.