Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Dec;122(12):1351-8.
doi: 10.1289/ehp.1408215. Epub 2014 Sep 9.

Green and blue spaces and behavioral development in Barcelona schoolchildren: the BREATHE project

Elmira Amoly  1 , Payam Dadvand, Joan Forns, Mónica López-Vicente, Xavier Basagaña, Jordi Julvez, Mar Alvarez-Pedrerol, Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen, Jordi Sunyer
Affiliations

Green and blue spaces and behavioral development in Barcelona schoolchildren: the BREATHE project

Elmira Amoly et al. Environ Health Perspect. 2014 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Green spaces have been associated with improved mental health in children; however, available epidemiological evidence on their impact on child behavioral development is scarce.

Objectives: We investigated the impact of contact with green spaces and blue spaces (beaches) on indicators of behavioral development and symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in schoolchildren.

Methods: This study was based on a sample of 2,111 schoolchildren (7-10 years of age) from 36 schools in Barcelona in 2012. We obtained data on time spent in green spaces and beaches and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) from parents, and ADHD/DSM-IV questionnaires from teachers. Surrounding greenness was abstracted as the average Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in buffers of 100 m, 250 m, and 500 m around each home address. Proximity to green spaces was defined as living within 300 m of a major green space (≥ 0.05 km2). We applied quasi-Poisson mixed-effects models (with school random effect) to separately estimate associations between indicators of contact with green spaces and SDQ and ADHD total and subscale scores.

Results: We generally estimated beneficial associations between behavioral indicators and longer time spent in green spaces and beaches, and with residential surrounding greenness. Specifically, we found statistically significant inverse associations between green space playing time and SDQ total difficulties, emotional symptoms, and peer relationship problems; between residential surrounding greenness and SDQ total difficulties and hyperactivity/inattention and ADHD/DSM-IV total and inattention scores; and between annual beach attendance and SDQ total difficulties, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behavior. For proximity to major green spaces, the results were not conclusive.

Conclusion: Our findings support beneficial impacts of contact with green and blue spaces on behavioral development in schoolchildren.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
NDVI map of Barcelona, 27 April 2011. Source: Landsat 5 TM data, NASA (https://earthdata.nasa.gov/)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Major green spaces across Barcelona. Source: Ecologic Map of Barcelona (Burriel 2004).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2000. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR® (4th ed, text revision)
    1. Becker A, Woerner W, Hasselhorn M, Banaschewski T, Rothenberger A. Validation of the parent and teacher SDQ in a clinical sample. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2004;13(supp 2):ii11–ii16. - PubMed
    1. Bowler D, Buyung-Ali L, Knight T, Pullin A.2010A systematic review of evidence for the added benefits to health of exposure to natural environments. BMC Public Health 10456; 10.1186/1471-2458-10-456 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Burriel JÁ. Ecological Map of Barcelona [in Spanish]. Barcelona, Spain:Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Application (CREAF). 2004. Available: http://www.creaf.uab.es/miramon/publicat/papers/CNTIG06/104%20-%20Mapa%2... [accessed 13 November 2014]
    1. Catalá-López F, Peiró S, Ridao M, Sanfélix-Gimeno G, Gènova-Maleras R, Catalá MA.2012Prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among children and adolescents in Spain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. BMC Psychiatry 121168; 10.1186/1471-244X-12-168 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources