Global interest in children’s wellbeing is growing and is now central to major international policy documents regarding children’s life quality (e.g. UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing). Research suggests that children’s wellbeing is linked to developing positive learning attitudes and coping successfully with change; conversely, low emotional wellbeing can lead to mental health problems. Critically, 10% of children in England suffer a severe mental health illness and suicide is the third leading cause of death in young people (Merikangas et al., 2010); this figure is higher for vulnerable groups, such as those from areas of high socio-economic deprivation. Whilst subjective wellbeing is important, there is an argument to suggest that focusing simply on wellbeing is not sufficient. One way to move beyond this is using Amartya Sen’s work on human capabilities; the capabilities approach critiques an education based on desired outcomes for the largest number - it looks at the potential to achieve, not actual achievement or outcome (Robeyns, 2011), and it defines achievement broadly.

Substantial benefits for wellbeing may be derived from contact with nature (Cervinka et al., 2012; WHO, 2016) and lack thereof in childhood has been found to be a predictor for adult depression (Snell et al., 2016). Despite this, in the last 30 years the number of children regularly playing in wild places in the UK fell by 90%(Natural Childhood Report, 2012) and children living with high deprivation are nine times less likely to have access to green spaces (Marmot, 2013).  A novel way to address this growing extinction of experience amongst children is through art in familiar outdoor places. There is evidence that arts education can improve both wellbeing and social inclusion (Kinder & Harland, 2004), as well as developing children’s capabilities (Zitcer et al., 2016). Hicks and King (2007) further suggest that art education is well situated to address environmental problems that emerge at the point of contact between nature and social life. However, individuals with low socio-economic status have less access to the arts than their more affluent counterparts and the arts are increasingly marginalised in school curricula (National Society for Education in Art & Design, 2016).

This participatory study is situated at the intersection of these three issues: a concern with children’s wellbeing; their apparent disconnect with the natural environment; and a lack of engagement with the arts in school curricula. It builds on Amartya Sen’s work on human capabilities as a proxy for wellbeing, developing the term eco-capabilities to describe how children define what they feel they need to live a fully good human life through environmental sustainability, social justice and future economic wellbeing (the three pillars of sustainability).

Research was undertaken using arts-based practice of the charity Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (CCI) within two primary schools in areas identified as having high poverty and deprivation with minimal cultural provision. The overarching research question addressed by the research was: How does working with artists in nature influence children’s wellbeing? This was supported by the following sub-questions:

1. How does working with artists in nature influence children’s perceptions of eco-capabilities?
2. By what participatory methods can we elicit children’s definitions of their eco-capabilities?
3. What are the mechanisms for change to wellbeing using arts-based practice in nature?

The research methodology draws on arts-based research (ABR), a transdisciplinary approach to knowledge building that combines the tenets of the creative arts in research contexts; through it the researcher, alone or with others, engages the making of art as a primary mode of inquiry (McNiff, 2011). ABR methodology provides a process-oriented view of research with an inclusive approach to engaging disenfranchised perspectives, such as those of children (Leavy, 2018). Within the methodological framework provided by ABR we took a participatory approach to data collection, engaging children in the development, implementation and evaluation phases of the project (Lansdown, 2005). Data collection was undertaken ethnographically using a case study approach to working with children in two Cambridgeshire primary schools identified as being in areas of poverty and deprivation with minimal cultural provision and infrastructure. Research included 120 children aged 7-8 years across four classes, two in each school. Methods of data collection were designed to explore the practice of the charity CCI in each school through eight full-day creative adventuring days and included: 1. All children took a pre- and post- intervention questionnaire with children; we used the extended Personal Wellbeing Index for School Children (PWI-SC: Cummins & Lau, 2005) questionnaire which measures children’s subjective wellbeing through their ‘level of happiness’ (Tomyn, Norrish & Cummins, 2013). 2. All children participated in a pre- and post- intervention full day workshop which included: eliciting from children a list of eco-capabilities that would make them happy or give them wellbeing; children’s assessment of their wellbeing against their list of eco-capabilities; and walk-and-talk interviews with children around their local area reflecting on their relationship with these places. 3. Within the eight days of creative adventuring, teachers, artists and researchers worked collaboratively to keep field notes to capture significant moments across the day, each focusing on their individual fields of interest. 4. All teachers and artists undertook a focus group discussion and individual interviews at the end of the creative adventuring days. All qualitative data, including transcribed workshop, walk and talk, and observational recordings and artist and teacher field notes, were transcribed and coded using thematic content analysis. The analysis was enhanced and validated through workshops with artist-researchers throughout the data analysis phase. Descriptive statistical analysis was undertaken on quantitative PWI-SC subjective wellbeing questionnaire data, to compare both the before and after intervention data, and allow for comparison with published data.

This project was delayed as a result of restrictions to access to schools within England during the Covid-19 pandemic; as such, we do not have any findings to report yet. However, field work is due to take place in Spring 2021 and by the time we create this poster we will have some initial findings to report on. We will relate our findings to how wellbeing as expressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We will also make reference to how this project has the potential to have significant societal impact; stemming from the fact that the study will ultimately provide an evidence-based understanding of how CCI works with schools, informing not only the future work of CCI but more broadly influencing how artists can work with children through place-based learning in schools to enhance the quality of life and wellbeing of children of all socio-economic backgrounds.

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