The Influence Of Natural Anthropomorphism On Children’s Pro-environmental Behavior:the Mediating Role Of Gratitude For Nature

Environmental attitudes and behaviors are at the root of future sustainable development,but little is known about the development of environmental attitudes and behaviors in childhood.However,improving children’s pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors is an important and inevitably slow process.In China,metaphorical expressions such as "Mother Nature" represent the emotional attachment to nature as a nurturer and giver of life,and represent the psychological imagery and metaphors of the female connection to nature,but research on the mechanisms of this association is limited.At the same time,"Mother Nature" is also an anthropomorphic expression of women’s connection to nature,and recent research has demonstrated that nature anthropomorphism can effectively increase pro-environmental behavior in adults.In order to explore how the female-nature connection is expressed in children and how it affects children’s pro-environmental behavioral tendencies,two studies are introduced to address these questions.Study 1 selected 44 children aged 9-12 years old and used the Implicit Association Test to explore whether there is an implicit association between females and nature among children,and the results showed that among children,female-nature associations are stronger than male-nature associations and are not affected by the gender of the subjects.Building on Study 1,Study 2a selected 178 children aged 9-12 years to further explore the effects of nature anthropomorphism on children’s pro-environmental behavioral tendencies.The results showed that children in the group who anthropomorphized nature as female(natural mother)showed a stronger tendency for high-cost pro-environmental behaviors compared to those in the group who anthropomorphized nature as male(natural father)and control groups.In Study 2b,based on Study 2a,273 children aged 9-12 years were selected to explore the relationship between gratitude for nature and nature anthropomorphism and children’s pro-environmental behavioral tendencies,and the results showed that nature anthropomorphism was significantly and positively related to both gratitude for nature and children’s pro-environmental behavioral tendencies,and further mediating effects analysis indicated that gratitude for nature played a fully mediating role between nature anthropomorphism and children’s pro-environmental behavioral tendencies.In summary,this study concludes that:(1)In the children’s group,the connection with nature was stronger for females than for males and was not influenced by the subjects’ gender.(2)Nature anthropomorphism significantly influenced children’s propensity for high-cost pro-environmental behaviors.This was demonstrated by the fact that children in the natural mother group showed a stronger tendency to engage in high-cost pro-environmental behaviors compared to the natural father and control groups.(3)Gratitude for nature mediated the role of nature anthropomorphism in children’s pro-environmental behavioral tendencies.