Improving Children’s Emotional Health through Installing Biowalls in Classrooms

Background and objective: The physical environment where children spend most of their time is closely associated with their emotional development. To improve the emotional health of children, the introduction of natural elements in the indoor space has been suggested, the benefits of which have been shown in preliminary studies. This study aims to examine the effects that a biowall - a wall installation - in a classroom has on the emotional health of children in kindergarten. Methods: A total of four biowalls were separately installed in four kindergarten classrooms at a school in Seoul, South Korea, and the 60 children in these classrooms participated in the study. We assessed the children’s emotional intelligence (via an Emotional Intelligence Rating Scale), resilience (via the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment), and eco-friendly attitudes (via the Children’s Attitudes Toward Scale) before the installation of the biowalls and then again 3 months later. Results: The children’s emotional intelligence, resilience, and eco-friendly attitudes had been significantly improved after the installation of the biowalls (p = .01). The sub-categories of the children s emotional intelligence and resilience were also significantly improved (p < .001). Conclusion: This study demonstrates the potential of biowalls&#8212;as an indoor environmental factor&#8212;in promoting the healthy emotional development of children. By bringing natural elements into indoor classroom settings, biowalls appear to increase children s direct/indirect contact with nature. To extrapolate the results of the study to the general population, future studies should be conducted with broader age groups.