Enjoyment, Empathy, and Environmental Behavior: A Study of Young Children’s Nature Connection in Iceland

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Nature connection (NC) in early childhood is increasingly recognized as a potential pathway to the development of lifelong environmental values and behaviors – a pathway that may hold growing relevance in the context of climate change. This mixed-methods study explored associations among three key dimensions of NC – enjoyment of nature (EON), empathy for nature (EFN), and pro-environmental behavior (PEB) – among young children in Iceland, a Nordic country where daily access to nature and sustainability education are embedded in the national preschool curriculum. Participants included 123 children (M = 59.5 months) from six Icelandic preschools who completed a pictorial NC assessment, and a subset of 19 children who participated in semi-structured interviews. Quantitative findings revealed that EON was significantly associated with EFN (rs(121) = .41, p < 0.001) and PEB (rs(121) = .51, p < 0.001). EFN and PEB were not significantly associated (rs(121) = .17, p = 0.06). Older children scored significantly higher on EON and PEB but lower on EFN. Exploratory qualitative analyses showed age-related differences in children’s reasoning: younger children tended to emphasize sensory enjoyment and emotional responses, while some older children demonstrated emerging perspective-taking and moral concern. Findings suggest that in a high-exposure cultural context like Iceland, emotional connection may be a stronger early driver of environmental behavior than empathy alone. We discuss implications for measuring NC in young children and designing developmentally grounded early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) that builds on affective, cognitive, and cultural dimensions of environmental engagement.