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Green Space and Internalizing or Externalizing Symptoms Among Children

Towe-Goodman, N., McArthur, K. L., Willoughby, M., Swingler, M. M., Wychgram, C., Just, A. C., Kloog, I., Bennett, D. H., Berry, D., Hazlehurst, M. F., James, P., Pescador Jimenez, M., Lai, J.-S., Leve, L. D., Gatzke-Kopp, L., Schweitzer, J. B., Bekelman, T. A., Calub, C., Carnell, S., Deoni, S., D’Sa, V., Kelly, C., Koinis-Mitchell, D., Petriello, M., Thapaliya, G., Wright, R. J., Zhang, X., & Kress, A. M.
April
2024

While research has suggested that time in nature is important for mental health, studies examining the effects on young children are limited. A group of ECHO investigators addressed this research gap by analyzing information from parents about the behavior of their children from ages 2 to 11. They combined this data with the family’s residential address when the child was born and satellite data on live vegetation density around their homes. What researchers found in their analysis was that higher levels of green spaces up to three-fourths of a mile from a child’s home were linked with lower anxiety and depression symptoms from ages 2 to 5 years. The association persisted even after researchers factored in the child’s sex, parent education, age at birth, and neighborhood socioeconomic vulnerability. Researchers did not find a significant association between green space around the home and mental health symptoms in later childhood years from ages 6 to 11, when children spend more time at school.

Citation

Towe-Goodman, N., McArthur, K. L., Willoughby, M., Swingler, M. M., Wychgram, C., Just, A. C., Kloog, I., Bennett, D. H., Berry, D., Hazlehurst, M. F., James, P., Pescador Jimenez, M., Lai, J.-S., Leve, L. D., Gatzke-Kopp, L., Schweitzer, J. B., Bekelman, T. A., Calub, C., Carnell, S., Deoni, S., D’Sa, V., Kelly, C., Koinis-Mitchell, D., Petriello, M., Thapaliya, G., Wright, R. J., Zhang, X., & Kress, A. M. (2024). Green space and internalizing or externalizing symptoms among children. JAMA Network Open, 7(4).

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.5742