Mental Health and the Built Environment

The built environment can promote or hinder mental health. Place attachment refers to the psychological and social connections people feel with certain places—their homes, the settings in which they grew up, and others. The conditions of modern life place great demands on—and often exhaust—our ability to pay attention. Green settings have the capacity to alleviate mental fatigue and help restore a person’s capacity to pay attention. Crowded, noisy, and dangerous places have a variety of negative impacts on people and their psychological states, fostering, for example, stress, anxiety, depression, and violent behavior. Some places draw people together and thus support the development of social ties and enhance the development of social capital. Places that encourage physical activity can both prevent and treat depression.

[1]  R. Kaplan.  The Nature of the View from Home , 2001 .

[2]  Mark Asbridge,et al.  Can We Prevent Road Rage? , 2006, Trauma, violence & abuse.

[3]  J. Osofsky,et al.  The effects of exposure to violence on young children. , 1995, The American psychologist.

[4]  R. Day,et al.  Local environments and older people's health: dimensions from a comparative qualitative study in Scotland. , 2008, Health & place.

[5]  Daniel Stokols,et al.  Environmental Stress and Health , 1986 .

[6]  Sung-Kwon Hong,et al.  Relationship between landscape structure and neighborhood satisfaction in urbanized areas , 2008 .

[7]  T. M. Waliczek,et al.  The Relationship Between Student Use of Campus Green Spaces and Perceptions of Quality of Life , 2008 .

[8]  P. Groenewegen,et al.  Is Green Space in the Living Environment Associated with People's Feelings of Social Safety? , 2009 .

[9]  R. Gifford,et al.  Housing quality and childrenȁ9s socioemotional health , 2006 .

[10]  P. Grahn,et al.  Landscape planning and stress , 2003 .

[11]  Donald Appleyard,et al.  ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY OF CITY STREETS: THE RESIDENTS' VIEWPOINT , 1972 .

[12]  Nancy M. Wells,et al.  Housing and Mental Health: A Review of the Evidence and a Methodological and Conceptual Critique , 2003 .

[13]  G. Evans,et al.  Child development and the physical environment. , 2006, Annual review of psychology.

[14]  Kevin Lynch,et al.  The Image of the City , 1960 .

[15]  G. Evans,et al.  Cross-cultural differences in tolerance for crowding: fact or fiction? , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  Sandro Galea,et al.  Urban built environment and depression: a multilevel analysis , 2005, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

[17]  G. Evans,et al.  Housing Quality and Children’s Socioemotional Health , 2001 .

[18]  J. Englund,et al.  Outdoor environmental assessment of attention promoting settings for preschool children. , 2009, Health & place.

[19]  Wong Nyuk Hien,et al.  Resident perceptions and expectations of rooftop gardens in Singapore , 2005 .

[20]  K. Beauchemin,et al.  Sunny hospital rooms expedite recovery from severe and refractory depressions. , 1996, Journal of affective disorders.

[21]  Stephen Kaplan,et al.  The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework , 1995 .

[22]  H Ising,et al.  Community noise exposure and stress in children. , 2001, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[23]  O. Ogunseitan.  Topophilia and the Quality of Life , 2004, Environmental health perspectives.

[24]  E. Berke,et al.  Protective Association Between Neighborhood Walkability and Depression in Older Men , 2007, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[25]  A. Kearney.  Residential Development Patterns and Neighborhood Satisfaction , 2006 .

[26]  S. Saxena,et al.  Mental health benefits of physical activity , 2005 .

[27]  William C. Sullivan,et al.  Green Common Spaces and the Social Integration of Inner-City Older Adults , 1998 .

[28]  F. E. Kuo,et al.  Aggression and Violence in the Inner City , 2001 .

[29]  Paul Cozens,et al.  Public health and the potential benefits of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. , 2007, New South Wales public health bulletin.

[30]  William C. Sullivan,et al.  Fertile Ground for Community: Inner-City Neighborhood Common Spaces , 1998 .

[31]  Aaron Curry,et al.  Pathways to depression: the impact of neighborhood violent crime on inner-city residents in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. , 2008, Social science & medicine.

[32]  Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk,et al.  The relationship of built environment to perceived social support and psychological distress in Hispanic elders: the role of "eyes on the street". , 2009, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[33]  A L Dannenberg,et al.  Physical activity and depressive symptoms: the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study. , 1988, American journal of epidemiology.