Vol. 31 No. 3 (2021): Children Youth and Environments

Inside this issue, you will find diverse scholarly work that spans across the globe. First, Schoeppich and co-authors critically review 14 studies focusing on children’s participation in playground creation to reveal gaps, inconsistencies and benefits associated with child participation. Next, we arrive in a small rural town in Upstate New York where Andrews investigated a 7-year-old girl’s conceptions of what counts as science in an everyday context. Expanding our regional focus, we visit New York state as well as, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. where Ibes and co-authors conduct intensive semi-structured interviews of local community leaders and leaders of nature-oriented organizations to enhance understanding of the barriers to nature engagement by YOC. Crossing the globe, we arrive in Iran where Manouchehri and co-authors investigated school children’s views of favorable and unfavorable attributes of their neighborhood environments. Heading South, we arrive in Porto Alegre in Brazil where Rosa and co-authors interviewed healthcare experts to identify interventions that would respond to children's needs, and architecture and mental health experts assessed their potential to improve children’s PWB to reveal that the hospital environment may stimulate all components of PWB, especially environmental mastery, personal growth, and self-acceptance. At our final stop, we head back the United States where Pic and Han explored peer conflict among preschoolers during indoor and outdoor free play in a nature-based preschool to reveal that outdoor nature environment seems to provide children more meaningful conflict situations around play ideas rather than the mere possession of material. A position paper by Gecker and co-authors helps us with understanding youth civic engagement in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Parkland. The issue continues with three reports from the field. First, Burnett and Edgeley describe ways to overcome barriers to outdoor education. Next, Tarr o describes the interactions between children and pocket parks. Then, Gravil and co-authors describe the use of citizen science and technology to connect preschool classrooms at two universitybased programs. We wrap this issue with two book reviews: Chawla’s review of The Necessity of Urban Green Space for Children’s Optimal Development: A Discussion Paper by Suchitra Sugar, and Maclure’s review of The Youngest Citizens: Children’s Rights in Latin America, by Amy Risley. Happy reading!