Roots first: where hope for children’s mental health begins
One in seven young people experiences a mental disorder. Here is what the evidence says, why we are hopeful, and three ways to put roots first.
IANEC
Roots first: where hope for children’s mental health begins
The numbers are sobering. The reasons for hope are real, and they begin earlier than most of us think.
One in seven
That is how many 10- to 19-year-olds around the world experience a mental disorder, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It is a number that deserves our full attention. It also deserves something harder to find: a hopeful plan.
If these numbers weigh on you as a parent, educator, or carer, you are in good company. At the International Association for Nature-based Early Childhood (IANEC), we want to offer both the facts and the hope. We start with the facts, because hope that ignores them does not last.
What the numbers say, and what they leave out
UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2021 report arrived at a similar figure: more than 13% of adolescents aged 10 to 19 live with a diagnosed mental disorder, or 166 million young people (89 million boys and 77 million girls). The same report found that mental health receives a mere 2.1% of the median government spending on health.
These figures describe teenagers, but the story often starts earlier. A large analysis of 192 studies, covering 708,561 people with a mental disorder, estimated that 34.6% first experienced it before age 14 and 48.4% before age 18. Those are modelled estimates, not exact counts. Even so, they point in one direction: childhood matters.
Why we are hopeful
WHO describes mental health promotion and prevention programmes that aim to strengthen a young person’s capacity to regulate emotions. It says they need a multi-level approach, delivered through schools and communities as well as health and social care settings. In other words, some help does not have to wait for a clinic. It can grow where children spend their days.
Now picture a forest kindergarten on a damp morning, anywhere in the world. A three-year-old is crouched over a puddle. A group of older children is hauling branches to build a den, while an educator stands close enough to help and far enough to let them try. It looks like play, because it is.
Is that a mental health programme? Not on its own, and we will not pretend otherwise. But what researchers have found about children and green space is worth taking seriously.
In Denmark, a study followed 943,027 people born between 1985 and 2003. Those who grew up with the least green space around their homes had up to 55% higher risk of developing a psychiatric disorder than those who grew up with the most, and the risk fell step by step as green space increased. This is a correlation, and the lead author has said so plainly: the study cannot definitively show that growing up near green space reduces the risk of mental illness.
A 2024 meta-review in The British Journal of Psychiatry brought together 18 reviews and five cohort studies. It concluded that nature appears to benefit the mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. The authors rated the certainty of the evidence as medium overall and called for more high-quality research.
For the youngest children, the evidence is younger still. The Scottish Government’s 2021 review of nature-based early learning and childcare examined 59 studies of children aged two to seven. Compared with traditional settings, nature-based settings were associated with better balance, self-regulation, and play interactions, while results for outcomes such as attention and social skills were mixed.
The review’s authors rated most of those studies weak, so they could not say that nature caused the differences. The review did not report mental health outcomes such as anxiety or depression. The honest summary is promising, not proven.
That is not a reason to wait. It is a reason to build the evidence together, with researchers, educators, and families at the same table.
Roots first: three ways to start this week
We call this idea roots first. A tree’s strength is built early and mostly out of sight, long before the storm arrives. Clinical care is the rescue we must always have ready for every child who needs it. Roots first adds to that care and never replaces it.
What if we planned green space and free play into every neighbourhood as carefully as we plan clinics and classrooms? What if, a decade from now, the headline about children’s mental health read “turnaround”? We cannot promise that, but we can help build it, by bringing researchers and practitioners together and sharing what works across borders. It is also why the wellbeing, development, and lifelong resilience of young children sit at the heart of IANEC’s purpose, as our Statute states.
Here are three ways to put roots first, starting this week:
• Take one daily routine outside. A snack, a story, a walk to nowhere in particular. No special equipment is needed.
• Make room for feelings. Ask, “What was the best part of your day, and what was the hardest?” Then listen without rushing to fix anything.
• Share what helps. In a Gallup survey for UNICEF across 21 countries, a median of 83% of young people aged 15 to 24 said it is better to address mental health issues by sharing experiences with other people. Tell another parent, teacher, or neighbour what works for you, and ask what works for them.
If you are worried about a child, please talk with a doctor, a school counsellor, or your local child and adolescent mental health service. Time outdoors and honest conversations are a foundation, not a substitute for professional care.
One in seven is where the data starts. Where the story goes next is up to all of us.
Sources
• World Health Organization (2025): Mental health of adolescents. Fact sheet, page dated 1 September 2025.
• UNICEF (2021): The State of the World’s Children 2021: On My Mind. Executive summary: PDF.
• Solmi, M., Radua, J., Olivola, M., et al. (2022): Age at onset of mental disorders worldwide: large-scale meta-analysis of 192 epidemiological studies. Molecular Psychiatry 27, 281–295.
• Engemann, K., et al. (2019): Residential green space in childhood is associated with lower risk of psychiatric disorders from adolescence into adulthood. PNAS 116(11), 5188–5193. The lead author’s comment on correlation is reported by NPR/KPBS (25 February 2019): Greener childhood associated with happier adulthood.
• Lomax, T., Butler, J., Cipriani, A., Singh, I. (2024): Effect of nature on the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents: meta-review. The British Journal of Psychiatry 225(3), 401–409.
• Scottish Government (2021): Nature-based early learning and childcare: influence on children’s health, wellbeing and development, literature review. Published 17 March 2021.
© International Association For Nature-based Early Childhood
Established in Slovenia. Connecting the world.
Pregljeva 9, Maribor, Slovenia
We can do it — together!
About