Living near woodlands is good for your child’s mental health
Parents always look for the best possible environment for raising children. They take into account their immediate neighbourhood, their proximity to their school, the friendliness of their neighbours and the best possible conditions for them grow healthy. A recent study has found that they should now also consider proximity to woodlands as an influential factor.
What does the research say?
The survey, led by scientists at UCL and Imperial College London and published in Nature Sustainability, revealed that daily exposure to woodlands (but not grasslands) gave higher scores for cognitive development. It also showed a 16% lower risk of emotional and behavioural problem two years down the lane. A similar effect, but smaller, was seen for green space not blue space. The sample size with access to blue space, however, was generally low. So, further investigation is required. The level of air pollution is also considered an explanatory variable but the observations were unreliable and this also requires further investigation.
How was the research carried out?
The goal of the research was to analyse the link between different types of natural urban environments and the pupils' cognitive development, mental health and overall well-being. This is how it was carried out.
- Scientists used longitudinal data relating to 3568 children aged 9 to 15 years from 31 schools across London.
- The environments were divided into green spaces (woods, meadows, parks), further separated into grassland and woodland, and blue spaces (rivers, lakes, sea)
- Researchers used satellite data to calculate daily exposure rate to each of these environments within 50m, 100m, 250m and 500m of their home and school.
- Other explanatory variables that were considered were age, ethnic background, gender, parental occupation and type of school.
Implications of the study
Natural environments play an important role in children and adolescents' cognitive development and mental health. This includes those further away from children’s homes and schools, not just their immediate surroundings. Urban planning decisions to optimise ecosystem benefits linked to cognitive development and mental health should carefully consider the type of natural environment included.
A leading news agency quoted lead author Dr Mikael Maes saying, "These findings contribute to our understanding of natural environment types as an important protective factor for an adolescent’s cognitive development and mental health and suggest that not every environment type may contribute to these health benefits.”
There are positive effects of children’s exposure to nature and it contributes to health benefits. However, the reasons we these health and psychological benefits exist remain unknown.
(With inputs from agencies)