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Understanding Environmental Deficit Phenomenon: Influences Affecting Children's Connectedness To Nature, Lauren Bates

USF St. Petersburg campus Master's Theses (Graduate)

The contemporary generation of young people experiences a childhood unlike any other previous generation. Federal funding for high achievement on standardized tests in the areas of reading and math have resulted in a narrowed school curricula focusing predominantly on these two subjects, and leaving little instructional time and resources for hands-on learning and unstructured time outdoors. Furthermore, children report spending less time outdoors and note that their parents are too busy to take them out to play. These circumstances at school and at home may indicate a decreasing value for nature experiences held by the adults who supervise children, which …