Studies for years have revealed how RVing provides many physical and mental health benefits to living an active outdoor lifestyle, and two new research reports are demonstrating how those benefits extend to children.
“Our recent surveys have shown that new RVers are younger and more diverse than ever before, and they are choosing RVing as a way to connect with nature and to counterbalance stress,” said Craig Kirby, RV Industry Association president and CEO. “What these new studies show is that the physical and mental health benefits of outdoor recreation also extend to children.”
According to the KOA 2024 Camping & Outdoor Hospitality Report on Outdoors and Wellness, campers who bring along their children say that spending time outdoors improves the children’s emotional well-being, relationships and physical health. These findings confirm those uncovered in an earlier study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, which shows the lifelong importance of childhood exposure to natural outdoor environments for physical, mental and cognitive development.
In its global study of 7,000 parents and children, the IKEA Play Report 2024 noted that “children are less physically active and spend more time indoors. Most families spend a significant part of their everyday lives inside — and a lot of it in front of screens.” The report continues, “The world faces unprecedented health, social, and ecological challenges — and intense global competition. This pressure has severe consequences in the form of decreasing well-being; mentally, emotionally and physically.”
Indeed, the increasingly indoor and sedentary lifestyles of children have been associated with “unfavorable behavioral conduct, lower self-esteem, poor concentration and reduced psychological well-being, quality of life and physical health,” according to the International Journal study. This, it claims, has resulted in adults with significantly worse mental health.
The health benefits of nature, it continues, have been attributed to “reduction in air pollution; increased physical activity, including walking and biking; and improved mental restoration through alleviation of anxiety and stress.”
“This data does not come as a surprise to RV owners who grew up camping in their parents’ or grandparents’ RVs,” added Kirby. “Not only do they value the myriad of benefits their children reap by spending time outdoors, they also experience a strengthening of family bonds by taking RV trips together.”
This latter fact is born out in the KOA study by 93% of the respondents who agreed that camping strengthens family relationships. IKEA’s study found that the top parents’ emotional play priority is “having fun together as a family.”
“Also among IKEA’s findings was that ‘making memories together’ was a top priority for parents — and that’s definitely what drives second- and third-generation RV buyers,” said Kirby.
