Two studies explore how 4–8-year-old children develop an understanding of aha-experiences. Study 1 used a scenario approach to investigate children's understanding of the impact that having an insight has on affect. Children (N = 125) rated affect of a story character at different timepoints in problem-solving scenarios with and without aha-moments. Study 2 presented children (N = 167) with a story character displaying an aha response and two different stories of problem solving that may have led to the response. Results show that from age 4, children associate aha-experiences with positive affect. However, age differences were observed for triggers of aha-experiences. While 4-5-year-olds attributed aha-experiences to external triggers (the solution), 7–8-year-olds attributed them to mental triggers (a new insight). These findings indicate that children's understanding of aha-experiences develops over time, which aligns with theories of emotional development and theory of mind.

Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions posed challenges to people’s private and work lives. This included a rapid shift from on-site to remote work for many working adults in Sweden and internationally, and limited opportunities for indoor social and leisure activities. This involved risks for increased loneliness and social isolation, particularly among those mainly working remotely. In this context, nature visits may mitigate loneliness. This study adds to existing research in investigating whether a higher degree of remote work during COVID-19 was related to increased loneliness and whether nature visits mitigated loneliness, especially for those who mainly worked remotely. Subject and methods: The sample comprised a subsample of respondents to the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health 2020 (n = 984). Nature-related habits (NRH) were measured using self-reported frequency of visits to various natural environments. The effect of remote work, NRH, and time on loneliness (before – during COVID-19) was analyzed using linear mixed models while controlling for confounders. Results: Loneliness levels during COVID-19 were highest and increased the most compared to before the pandemic among individuals with the greatest degree of working remotely. Engaging daily in NRH was associated with lower loneliness levels, particularly among individuals mostly working remotely. This was observed in a three-way interaction effect between remote work, NRH, and time on loneliness. Conclusion: Daily nature visits may protect against loneliness during and beyond crises like COVID-19, particularly for those mainly working remotely. Policies preserving and facilitating access to nature may promote resilience during and beyond crises like COVID-19.

An insight is a moment of sudden understanding followed by characteristic feelings of suddenness, positive affect, certainty, and ease, commonly known as an aha experience. Despite evidence from studies with adults that aha experiences benefit learning, little systematic research on children’s aha experiences exists. The present study asks how children understand and experience insight. We presented a community sample of 160 children (age: 4–8 years, 47% girls, 51% boys, 2% nonbinary) with an illustrated clues task inspired by the Remote Associate Test, a task commonly used to study insight in adults. In this task, children saw three clues and were asked to find a solution word that was associated with the three clues. Self-reported and observed aha experiences were recorded, along with children’s solution accuracy and confidence. Children also answered a set of questions to assess their understanding of aha experiences. We found that although the number of aha experiences remained stable across age, there was a clear developmental increase in the understanding of aha experiences. Children’s ability to recognize their own aha experiences as well as their general understanding of the aha concept increased with age. This suggests a lag between the occurrence of children’s aha experiences and their understanding of such experiences; children first have aha experiences and later develop an understanding of those experiences. Aha experiences were associated with higher accuracy, but not with higher confidence ratings. Observed aha experiences, but not self-reported aha experiences, predicted increased motivation. Our findings are in line with the literature on metacognitive development and the distinction between the experience and the understanding of emotion.

This study provides first insights into aha-experiences in infancy and childhood. In two studies, a content analysis of parental reports from two different populations, a Norwegian sample and an international sample of English-speaking parents, was conducted. Parents described 606 aha-stories of their children (age 3 weeks to 16 years). Three main findings were replicated across two studies: (1) Even infants may have aha-experiences; (2) Children have aha-experiences on various topics related to action and cognition; (3) The focus of aha-experiences shifts from action to cognition with age (3 weeks-8 years, Odds Ratios > 1.567). These findings may have implications for understanding what motivates children's learning and cognitive development and for future research.

Background: Human health and environmental sustainability constitute major local and global challenges which are also closely interconnected. Mental health and sleeping problems are e.g. public health concerns that are costly for society and for individuals.Exposure to natural environments such as green (vegetation) and blue (water) space are associated with a range of human health benefits, and are also central in biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. However, population-based studies investigating high-resolution, individual-level residential greenspace are yet limited, as population-based studies have mainly assessed greenspace at more crude aggregated levels. Objective & methods: Thus, in a set of large-scale population-based longitudinal studies, on nationwide cohorts in Sweden, objective high-resolution individual-level residential greenspace land cover assessments were made, including availability and access to different greenspace qualities (incl. of high biodiversity). The role of different residential greenspace qualities was investigated longitudinally for: 1) objective prescription medication purchase for common mental health problems, and 2) self-reported symptoms. Furthermore behaviour-related use and exposure to different types of natural environments were assessed in a sub-cohort, and their significance for multiple health indicators.Results & discussion: Results across studies show that more residential greenspace especially in the immediate residential surrounding (50m and 100m buffer zones around home) is associated with lower insomnia, antidepressant and anxiolytic prescription medication purchases, and less symptoms. Furthermore, spending time in nature especially in the home environment and forests were important for several aspects of mental health and health behaviours.Results highlight the role of greenspace in the immediate residential surroundings, as well as access to high quality greenspaces (i.e. larger coherent green areas conferring higher biodiversity) for mental health and health related behaviours. The multiple pathways through which different greenspace qualities can affect human health, while also contributing to biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and resilience are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions included various physical distancing measures to limit disease transmission which also applied to indoor sports facilities. This posed challenges to engaging in physical activities (PA) in indoor facilities in Sweden. Therefore, outdoor recreation in nature may have become more important for overall PA levels. The current study thus investigates the changing role of Nature-Related Habits (NRH) for overall PA levels from before to during the pandemic, in a population-based sample of adults in Sweden. 

The study was conducted on a sub-sample of adults within the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH), participating in SLOSH-corona (n = 1485, Mean age = 57.70, 55.9% women). Different types of NRH and overall PA levels before and during the pandemic were assessed via self-report measures, along with control variables. 

The results indicated that NRH played an increased role for overall PA levels during the pandemic compared to before, also after controlling for sex, socioeconomic position, age and marital/cohabitation status in the regression models.

The study demonstrates the increased importance of NRH for overall PA levels during the pandemic, even after controlling for demographic variables. Preserving and promoting the availability and access to nature environments can support PA in the population and may be especially important during public health crises and should be prioritised in public health and environmental policies.