Gender influence of environmental perception future vision of the riverside landscape made by children

Abstract

Children's perceptions are studied from a gender perspective, based on a set of drawings that represented a future vision of the riverside landscape made by children who attended schools near the banks of the Matanza Riachuelo River in the city of Buenos Aires and the metropolitan area. The objective was to explore if there were gender differences in the perceptual views on the quality of the river landscape as desired in the future (condition of restored river). A total of 104 children between the ages of 9 and 12 participated (48 girls, 56 boys), who drew without guidelines a scene of the nearby river landscape that represented the desired future after the river was cleaned up. The results do not allow finding significant gender differences. The children frame the river as a habitat for aquatic animals within a landscape where vegetation predominates over human presence. From the drawings of both girls and boys of the landscape, a predilection for the appearance of a varied landscape is recognized, where the river is one more element, accompanied mainly by herbaceous plants, trees, grass, aquatic animals and flowers. Also, they attach importance to it as a recreational space, especially being able to swim.