Introduction

Natural Spaces and Development

Abstract

Emerging from work presented at the 2016 Jean Piaget Society conference,thecurrent special issue of Children, Youth and Environmentsaddresses ways in which experiences in nature have an impact on individual development. We begin by noting that much existing research on this topic has been conducted and disseminated within the boundaries of individual disciplines, and we argue for the need for more integrative, systematic approaches. We then summarize individual papers that describe research employingvariedenvironmental experiences, research designs, analytic tools, and outcome measures (e.g., measures of children's brain functioning,cognition, social interactions,and affect). We end by identifying important theoretical and methodological issues to address in future research.