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Dr. Elise Peters is an environmental child psychologist and works as a senior researcher and teacher at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences. Elise is specialized in nature interventions for the support of children. Together with children, parents, teachers, and social workers, she investigates how we can increase children’s time spend with nature, and what the effects are on, for instance, the families’ functioning, children’s play behavior, and feelings of place attachment. She works particularly with children at risk of disadvantage, such as children in low-income high-risk neighborhoods, homeless families, children in juvenile detention, children in women’s shelters, and asylum seekers families. Currently, she works on several studies focused on nature and children. Examples are a study of young teachers’ strategies to increase children’s nature contact at school, a study of children’s connection with the animals that live in their neighborhood, a study on making learning ecosystems for nature education more inclusive and accessible for children, and a photo study of children’s favorite places in family shelters.

In this episode we discuss the relevant aspects and approaches for the design of shelters and translate these concepts to the overall discourse on design for health a wellbeing. Elise elaborates on a number of compelling examples from her own word to outline both best practices and “false assumptions” to understand the role design plays in these contexts.

 

References and related Projects:

Peters, E., Maas, J., Schuengel, C., & Hovinga, D. (2020). Making women’s shelters more conducive to family life: professionals’ exploration of the benefits of nature. Children’s Geographies, 19(4), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2020.1826405

Peters, E., Maas, J., Hovinga, D., Van den Bogerd, N., & Schuengel, C. (2020). Experiencing Nature to Satisfy Basic Psychological Needs in Parenting: A Quasi-Experiment in Family Shelters. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2020, 17, 8657.

Peters, E., Hovinga, D., Maas, J., & Schuengel, C. (2021). Exposure to a natural environment to improve parental wellbeing in parents in a homeless shelter: a multiple baseline single case intervention study. Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness, 1-12. Taylor & Francis online.

Peters E., Hovinga D., Maas J., Schuengel C. (2022). Social Workers’ Choice Making in Supporting Nature Activities by Parents and Children in Shelters. Frontiers in Psychology. 10.3389.

Peters, E. (2022). Bed, Bath and Beyond. Nature Interventions to Support Family Life in Dutch Women’s Shelters and Shelters for Homeless Families. ( pdf, 4.99 MB ) Doctoral dissertation/Proefschrift. Amsterdam/Leiden, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/Hogeschool Leiden.

Understanding Shelters as Children’s Places: an Analysis of the Favorite Places of 4-12 Year Olds (ongoing study)