Effects of forest healing program activities using natural environments on the respect for life and prosocial behavior of 5-year-old child

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of forest healing program activities using natural environments on life recognition and prosocial behavior of child. Kindergarten children in Cheongju City were divided into two test groups and a control group. Test Group A participated in the forest healing program at the Infant Forest Experiences Center, while Test Group B had forest healing program activities in the classrooms of early childhood education institutions. Control group did not carry out the forest healing program but carried out the program by the Nuri Curriculum. The forest healing program was conducted once a week for a total of 12 sessions, each session lasting one hour. The forest healing program is based on physical and chemical sensory factors through the five senses. The effect of the forest healing program, and the data were analyzed by one way ANOVA and covariance analysis (ANCOVA). According to the result, the children of Test group A showed greater improvements in all sub-factors of respect for life (perspective on respect for life, knowledge of respect for life, and cooperative behavior with respect for life) than Test group B or Control group. Test group A also showed an increasing trend in all sub-factors of prosocial behavior (ability to regulate personal emotions, ability to build interpersonal relationships, and ability to adapt to kindergarten). The forest healing program using natural environments showed significant effects on the respect for life and prosocial behavior for 5-year old children.