Sowing Seeds for Healthier Diets: Children’s Perspectives on School Gardening

Edris Nury, Asia Sarti, Coosje Dijkstra, Jacob C. Seidell and Christine Dedding
Additional contact information
Edris Nury: Department of Palliative Care, University Medical Center Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
Asia Sarti: Athena Institute for Research on Innovation and Communication in Health and Life Sciences, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, VU University, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Coosje Dijkstra: Department of Health Sciences, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, and the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jacob C. Seidell: Department of Health Sciences, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, and the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Christine Dedding: Athena Institute for Research on Innovation and Communication in Health and Life Sciences, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, VU University, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-12

Abstract: School gardening programmes are among the most promising interventions to improve children’s vegetable intake. Yet, low vegetable intake among children remains a persistent public health challenge. This study aimed to explore children’s perspectives, experiences, and motivations concerning school gardening in order to better understand and increase its potential for health promotion. Using participant observation and semi-structured interviews, we provided 45 primary schoolchildren (9–10 years) from Amsterdam, who participated in a comprehensive year-round school gardening programme, the opportunity to share their experiences and ideas on school gardening. Children particularly expressed enjoyment of the outdoor gardening portion of the programme as it enabled them to be physically active and independently nurture their gardens. Harvesting was the children’s favourite activity, followed by planting and sowing. In contrast, insufficient gardening time and long explanations or instructions were especially disliked. Experiencing fun and enjoyment appeared to play a vital role in children’s motivation to actively participate. Children’s suggestions for programme improvements included more autonomy and opportunities for experimentation, and competition elements to increase fun and variety. Our results indicate that gaining insight into children’s perspectives allows matching school gardening programmes more to children’s wishes and expectations, thereby potentially enhancing their intrinsic motivation for gardening and vegetable consumption.

Keywords: school gardening; health promotion; the child’s perspective; participant observation; vegetables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/688/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/688/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:7:p:688-:d:102573

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().