Children in Scotland Not So Different from Their US Counterparts

Sunday Herald – December 02, 2007
By Kate Smith

Scarlett is an eight-year-old who loves getting her hands dirty. She mucks out the stables of her family's horses in return for a chance to ride in the fields around her Stirlingshire home and for her, wildlife, woodlands and nature are there to be explored and enjoyed. It's an attitude that has been cultivated by her mother, Elizabeth McQuillan, who has passed on her own love of horses and the outdoors to her daughter.

"It is quite a powerful mother and daughter bonding experience since we are out in all weathers together, sharing a common interest," says McQuillan. "We have a lot of fun larking around in the mud, and work together as a team to do all the chores around the yard. Exposure to the outdoors has meant that Scarlett has a good understanding of nature and the environment, and having the responsibility of a pony to care for has helped her to become a self-sufficient and capable girl."

Contrast Scarlett's childhood with that of 10-year-old Jack Cairns and his brother Archie, eight. "I guess the nearest my boys come to nature is when we swept up the leaves together last weekend," says the boys' mother Niamh, 40. The Cairns family live in Jordanhill, Glasgow, and spend most of their spare time either at home or in urban leisure centres, cinemas or swimming pools.

"We tend not to go to parks or for walks at weekends," adds Cairns. "Our holidays don't really involve the outdoor life either since we like to go to Florida. Typically, at the weekend, we might take them swimming, to the cinema or to get a new DVD or game. I do a lot for them. I've actively encouraged their friendships with the quieter boys who are keen gamers, rather than the boys who go out with their pals for the afternoon. I just don't want them out of my sight. I'm scared of something happening to them, I suppose."

So which of these family experiences - Scarlett's or the Cairns boys - is more typical? And which is more beneficial for children's health and wellbeing: the risks and responsibilities of the outdoors, or the safety and security of life indoors?

Many parents are likely to identify with the Cairns clan, since more and more hard-working and time-starved urban families try to give their children as much exercise and stimulation as they can without exposing them to the risk of dangerous roads, predatory adults and street gangs. Or, for that matter, exposing a nice clean family home to dirty feet. "We have white carpets, so I would rather they didn't play football in the garden and trail mud in through the house," says Cairns, whose attempt to keep her children reasonably fit, happy and active while coping with all the other realities of life is something families have been struggling with for 20 years or more.

However, some experts believe this is a struggle that today's parents are losing. No matter how many organised sports events or craft sessions urban children are ferried to in their parents' cars, the fact that these activities take place in a controlled and risk-free environment far away from the natural world of rivers, woods and wildlife is a cause for profound concern.

What's more, children's alienation from the natural world doesn't just occur in cities. It is a growing problem in rural villages according to Richard Louv, whose book Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder argues that even some youngsters living in the countryside have lost touch with nature, eschewing wildlife for an "urbanised" existence in front of the TV or computer screen at home.

With obesity, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on the increase among children, Louv believes getting them back in touch with the natural world could go a long way to combating these modern-day problems. "Healing the broken bond between our young and nature is in our self-interest our mental, physical and spiritual health depend upon it," he says.

Child psychoanalyst Ian Williamson from the Tavistock Centre in Sussex agrees. "Apart from the health issues, this is about space and play. We have less space now in which to live. Space is becoming more urbanised. As a result, children are more confined and boxed up," he says.

"Outdoor play amid nature is very important for children, particularly for boys," he adds. "When you play in nature you have to create the world using your imagination, so a tree becomes a treehouse, a castle or a den. With digital play the world is already created for you. So that type of interaction is different from playing with nature and it draws on different skills."

In a society that is becoming ever more urbanised and sedentary, the statistics do seem to suggest a link between poor mental and physical health and children's alienation from the great outdoors. In 2006, an NHS Scotland survey revealed that more than a third of 12-year-olds were considered overweight, with almost 20% obese and 11% severely obese. Meanwhile, according to the NHS, the number of prescriptions for antidepressants for children has quadrupled in the past decade. About 46,000 children in Scotland have been diagnosed with ADHD and in some areas the numbers of prescriptions for drugs to combat that disorder have, according to Scottish government figures, doubled in the last four years.

What this means, writes Louv, is that our society is suffering from what he terms "nature-deficit disorder". He goes on to argue that the nature-deficit disorder is a product of withdrawing nature from childhood experience over the past few decades, and claim that not only children, but families and by turn the whole of society is showing the symptoms of this disorder.

There is a solution, he believes, but it would require a complete reversal of the current trend. In other words, children need to get back to nature. "As children's connections with nature diminish and the social, psychological and spiritual implications become apparent, new research shows that nature can offer powerful therapy for such maladies as depression, obesity and attention deficit disorder," he says, adding: "Environment-based education dramatically improves test scores and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking and decision-making."

For Scarlett's mother, who seems to have found an effective way to keep her daughter in touch with the natural environment, the most important lesson that children can learn from being out and about does not concern physical fitness. After all, the Cairns boys are lucky enough to have a mother who spends 11 hours a week driving them through the urban jungle so they can take part in physical activites such as tae kwon do.

Instead, what seems most important is that letting children get out there and experience nature allows them to develop resilience. It exposes them to a certain amount of risk and calls on them to cope with some unpredictable situations by themselves.

"To me it would seem suffocating for a child to only be involved in activities where the atmosphere is controlled, sterile and unchallenging," says McQuillan. "I am a firm believer that children should learn through experience and gain a greater understanding of risk."

But for those familes who don't have the time, the access or the money to learn to ride a horse or walk the hills safely and enjoyably, then getting the children in touch with nature on a sustained and regular basis perhaps just seems too impractical to contemplate. Instead many of us are trapped in the urban environment with all its limitations and paradoxes: we drive the kids to school because we are concerned about the dangers of traffic; and we refuse to give our children the same space and latitude many of us enjoyed when we were young because of anxieties about things that are, mercifully, rarities, such as child abduction, gang fights or drug abuse.

It will take a massive shift in societal attitudes away from mollycoddling our children to letting them roam free, secure in the knowledge they will be safe and responsible. But it is surely time we took bigger steps towards ensuring our young are healthier, happier and more savvy.

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