Environmental Determinants of Aggression in Adolescents: Role of Urban Neighborhood GreenspaceShow others and affiliations
2016 (English)In: Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, ISSN 0890-8567, E-ISSN 1527-5418, Vol. 55, no 7, p. 591-601Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Objective: Neighborhood greenspace improves mental health of urban-dwelling populations, but its putative neurobehavioral benefits in adolescents remain unclear. We conducted a prospective study on urban-dwelling adolescents to examine the association between greenspace in residential neighborhood and aggressive behaviors.
Method: Participants (n = 1,287) of the Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior Study, a multi-ethnic cohort of twins and triplets born in 1990 to 1995 and living in Southern California, were examined in 2000 to 2012 (aged 9-18 years) with repeated assessments of their aggressive behaviors by the parent-reported Child Behavior Checklist. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from satellite imagery was used as a proxy for residential neighborhood greenspace aggregated over various spatiotemporal scales before each assessment. Multilevel mixed-effects models were used to estimate the effects of greenspace on aggressive behaviors, adjusting for within-family/within-individual correlations and other potential confounders.
Results: Both short-term (1- to 6-month) and long-term (1- to 3-year) exposures to greenspace within 1,000 meters surrounding residences were associated with reduced aggressive behaviors. The benefit of increasing vegetation over the range (∼0.12 in NDVI) commonly seen in urban environments was equivalent to approximately 2 to 2.5 years of behavioral maturation. Sociodemographic factors (e.g., age, gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status) and neighborhood quality did not confound or modify these associations, and the benefits remained after accounting for temperature.
Conclusion: Our novel findings support the benefits of neighborhood greenspace in reducing aggressive behaviors of urban-dwelling adolescents. Community-based interventions are needed to determine the efficacy of greenspace as a preemptive strategy to reduce aggressive behaviors in urban environments.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier, 2016. Vol. 55, no 7, p. 591-601
Keywords [en]
Adolescents, aggression, environment, epidemiolog, greenspace
National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine Psychology Pediatrics
Research subject
Psychology; Pediatrics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-51144DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2016.05.002ISI: 000378985200009PubMedID: 27343886Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84988857223OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-51144DiVA, id: diva2:945354
Note
Funding Agencies:
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) R21 ES022369 F31 ES025080
Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center 5P30ES007048
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) R01 MH058354
2016-07-012016-07-012025-02-20Bibliographically approved