Where’d the Water Go?

For 5- to 8- year olds who speak English

In this study, your child will see and hear three stories about a change in the environment. They will then be asked to answer questions about each story. These questions will be about how they felt about what happened in the story and whether they would like to help. After your child is finished, you will be asked to respond to a short questionnaire about interactions with nature and pets. This questionnaire asks questions about how much time your child spends outside and whether there are pets at home.

We know that children’s empathic concern evolves with age: as they grow older, their feelings toward friends, family members, animals, and strangers change, with certain relationships taking on greater priority than others. However, less is known about what this developmental process looks like in the context of climate change. This study will help us to understand how children develop care for how changes in the environment affect other beings, like animals, people, or nature. This will be studied by how your child responds to three stories about changes in the environment that affect different beings.

15 minutes

We will email you a $5 giftogram card as a thank-you within approximately three days. To be eligible, your child must be in the age range for the study, present in the study, a valid consent statement is submitted, and it is your first time taking the study with your child. We will send a gift card if you do not finish or if we are unable to use your responses.