Study: Outdoors is Good for Kids

Put this in the “duh!” category, but if you ever need something to point someone to online about this, here it is, courtesy of The Outdoor Wire:

> Time spent outdoors correlates with increased physical activity and fitness in children; exposure to green space reduces crime, increases general wellbeing and ability to focus; children as young as five have shown a significant reduction in the symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) when they are engaged in outdoor activities in natural settings. Research indicates that there could be reductions in crime as a result of outdoor education.

> The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that children who are more active outdoors and hang out outdoors tend to engage in greater physical activity as youth and later as adults.

> Outdoor skills activities such as hunting and fishing provide opportunities for the connection of individuals with nature (the natural environment), direct connection with other people (interpersonal) and with themselves (personal).

> The study – really a “white paper” titled Benefits of Outdoor Skills to Health, Learning and Lifestyle: A Literature Review – was done for The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies. (So of course it reached the right conclusions, like someone doing a study for the animal rights goo-goos that finds that hunting is bad for you.)

That’s the short version. The longer version can be downloaded here (pdf).