This figure gives us an overview on how our interactions with the physical environment since young help us form positive attachments to nature, hence developing our environmental identity along the way as we grow up.
From birth to the age of five, children are highly dependent on caregivers to provide them with basic needs such as food, water, comfort and security. Caregivers can also take the children to natural settings and establish the children’s first contact with nature.
During the middle childhood, children start playing with objects in their physical environment. There is also an outward trend where children interact with other children and explore their skills and creativity.
Subsequently, the social environment begins to take up a bigger role in the adolescents’ lives compared to the physical environment. However, it is worth noting that while adolescents seek independence and privacy in their homes, they may also value the solitude which nature provides.
All these interactions with the natural environment contribute to the formation of an environmental identity in adulthood. Autobiographies by adults showed that memories of childhood place had a large proportion related to outdoor environments. In addition, Smernou (as cited in Bott, Cantrill, & Myers, 2003) proposed a model for the development of place identity in adulthood. Adults perceive, interpret, and subsequently evaluate structural details in the environment and related socio-cultural factors. The evaluation of the space is expressed through thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. This shows that adults also actively engage with the physical environment they live in, thus developing their environmental identity.