How Do Childhood Nature Experiences and Negative Emotions Towards Nature Influence Preferences for Outdoor Activity among Young Adults?

Although negative perceptions of wildlands may play a role in outdoor recreational preferences, little is known about whether childhood nature experiences change people’s negative perceptions towards nature and their preferences for outdoor recreation later in life. We conducted a questionnaire survey of university students in Tokyo, Japan, to explore their disgust and fear-evoking episodes in early outdoor activities and how those experiences influenced later preferences for nature-related activities. We constructed a structured equation model (SEM) to analyze structural relationships across a variety of factors: sociodemographics, amount of green space in childhood environments, childhood nature experiences, disgust sensitivity and fear expectancy arising from outdoor activities, and preferences for outdoor activity later in life. We found that disgust and fear-evoking experiences in early outdoor activities decreased levels of disgust sensitivity and fear expectancy later on. The SEM results showed that disgust sensitivity towards outdoor activities significantly and negatively influenced preferences for outdoor activities, whereas fear expectancy did not. Childhood nature experiences were a strong predictor of disgust sensitivity to, and fear expectancy for, outdoor activities, suggesting that increasing contact with nature during childhood would be useful for decreasing negative perceptions of nature later on. In addition, the quantity of green areas around residential settings significantly positively impacted childhood nature experiences, highlighting the important role of accessible urban green space for childhood recreation and durable positive perceptions of nature.