Dangerous or Safe? Changing Caregiver Perceptions and Engagement with the Sonoran Desert

The Sonoran Desert is a magical place full of beauty and wonder. With an increase each year in the number of new families calling Arizona their home, so also comes an increase in pre-conceived notions of the dangers of the Sonoran Desert. Dangers such as plants, animals, and weather conditions can cause fears in families. Though these fears are valid, understanding different ways to stay safe and engage with nature in the Sonoran Desert is critical to building future generations of adults that value the natural world. Current literature does not address the Sonoran Desert and Arizona as a space to engage in nature play. The current action research study builds on the literature to offer new perspectives on nature play in the Sonoran Desert. A mixed-methods approach was used to assess caregivers' perception of safety, risk, and benefits of nature play in the Sonoran Desert. The intervention utilized the social media platform, Instagram, to administer the intervention content. Results from this study suggest that even though participants were already engaged in nature play, their perceptions of risk, safety, and benefits of nature play in the Sonoran Desert changed positively or were reinforced. The analysis expands the current literature on risk, safety, and benefits of nature play.