Green Spaces for Urban Children - Yes!
If you knew that exposure to green spaces as a child could lower the risk of developing psychiatric disorders in adolescents and adulthood, would you increase your child’s exposure to the natural environment?
A Denmark study responds with a resounding, “Yes!”
Researchers caution that growing up in urban environments is associated with the risk of developing psychiatric disorders. However, exposing children living in urban environments to green spaces can actually lower the risk of developing psychiatric disorders later in life.
Their results suggest that exposure to green space lowers depression, the risk of developing schizophrenia, and reduces neural activity linked to psychiatric disorders.
They describe how green space influences mental health through both psychological and physiological pathways, as green spaces serve as settings for individual and social behavior that can mitigate negative influences of other aspects of the physical environment.
Being in green spaces can promote mental health by supporting psychological restoration, encouraging exercise, improving social coherence, decreasing noise and air pollution affecting brain development, and improving children’s cognitive development and immune functioning, according to the study.
Studies like this reaffirm UBA’s commitment to get as many children living in urban environments into nature as much as possible to improve mental health outcomes throughout the lifespan.
