Ask most parents and grandparents and they will tell you being a child today is not what it used to be. As the world has industrialized, urbanized and our technology advanced, people's lives have moved largely inside — a far cry from the 'free-range', nature-based childhoods of past decades.

That shift has repercussions not only for children's happiness — a wealth of research shows humans respond positively to nature quotes — but also for the way they care for the natural environment. DW spoke to Louise Chawla, a professor in the Environmental Design Program at the University of Colorado in the United States, about her research on how we can create the optimal environments for children and adolescents to grow up in healthy ways.

DW: How different are the childhoods of today's children?

Over the past two generations, both children's and adult lives have largely moved indoors. Studies typically show that we spend some 90% of our time either in a building or in a car. And that's very different emotional quotes than the free-range childhoods that a lot of grandparents remember, when the one rule governing their life was be home for dinner.

DW: Why is this childhood connection to nature so important?

Well, of course, we evolved in the natural world, and this urbanization and moving indoors is a blink of a few seconds in terms of human fake people quotes evolution. And we know with a great deal of research done with both adults and children that our bodies physiologically respond positively to being outdoors in safe, natural areas. And we immediately show a physiological reduction in stress. But along with that, both children and adults report feeling happier when they're outdoors in in natural areas.