Investigating the Influence of "Green School Yards Formation» to Environmental Awareness, to Learning, to Physical Fitness, to Social Health and to Mental Health of Primary School Students

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of primary school children about the impact of "green" school yards formation in their environmental awareness, learning and their physical, social and mental health. The survey involved 180 school children (85 boys and 95 girls) of the sixth class, from the prefectures of Thessaloniki and Imathia. They were selected by the degree of "green" formation of their school yards. The results of the tests (t-test) for independent samples showed that the gender did not affect student’s perceptions about their environmental awareness, learning and their physical, social, and mental health. The results of One Way Anova analysis showed that the degree of "green" school yards formation affects the perception of students on a) their environmental awareness (F (2,177) = 30.501, p <.05), their learning (F (2,177) = 26.798, p <.05), c) their physical health (F (2,177) = 23.851, p < .05), d) their social health (F (2,177) = 66.925, p <.05), and e) their mental health (F (2,177) = 31.336, p <.05). This research can be used to assess the effect of the characteristics and design of school yards to life and health of students and to the quality of the provided education.