Living near green space associated with fewer emotional problems in preschool-age kids, NIH study finds
ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON CHILD HEALTH OUTCOMES
IMAGE:
NIH ECHO PROGRAM
view moreCREDIT: NIH ECHO PROGRAM
Children who live in areas with natural spaces (e.g., forests, parks, backyards) from birth may experience fewer emotional issues between the ages of 2 and 5, according to a study funded by the NIH Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program.
While research has suggested that time in nature is important for mental health, studies examining the effects on young children are limited. ECHO investigators addressed this research gap by analyzing information from parents about the behavior of their children from ages 2 to 11. They combined this data with the family’s residential address when the child was born and satellite data on live vegetation density around their homes.
What researchers found in their analysis, published in JAMA Network Open, was that higher levels of green spaces up to three-fourths of a mile from a child’s home were linked with lower anxiety and depression symptoms from ages 2 to 5 years. The association persisted even after researchers factored in the child’s sex, parent education, age at birth, and neighborhood socioeconomic vulnerability. Researchers did not find a significant association between green space around the home and mental health symptoms in later childhood years from ages 6 to 11, when children spend more time at school.
“Our research supports existing evidence that being in nature is good for kids,” said Nissa Towe-Goodman, PhD, an ECHO researcher from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “It also suggests that the early childhood years are a crucial time for exposure to green spaces.”
Most research so far has been limited to studying one or a few cities at a time, and focused on adult health. Because the ECHO Program collects data nationwide, researchers were able to examine data from children in 199 counties across 41 U.S. states, exploring the connection between exposure to green spaces from birth and anxiety, depression, aggression, and other symptoms during early or middle childhood.
The study included children born between 2007 and 2013 and whose parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist, a common survey to rate a child’s emotional and behavioral symptoms. The 2,103 children included in the study ranged in age from 2 to 11, spanning early and middle childhood.
Green space exposure was measured using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a widely used metric for quantifying vegetation density using sensor data. NDVI values range from -1 to 1. High NDVI values (approximately 0.6 to 0.9) represent dense vegetation, such as forests; values close to zero represent areas without live vegetation.
“In the future, researchers could look into what kinds of experiences in nature are connected to kids' early mental health,” said Dr. Towe-Goodman. “Also, we should study how creating or preserving natural areas around homes and schools might make a difference in a child’s mental health.”
Dr. Towe-Goodman lead this collaborative research in JAMA Network Open.
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About ECHO:
Launched in 2016, the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program is a research program in the Office of the Director at the NIH with the mission to enhance the health of children for generations to come. ECHO investigators study the effects of a broad range of early environmental influences on child health and development. For more information, visit echochildren.org.
About the NIH: NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information, visit www.nih.gov.
JOURNAL
JAMA Network Open
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Observational study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Children who live in areas with natural spaces (e.g., forests, parks, backyards) from birth may experience fewer emotional issues between the ages of 2 and 5, according to a study funded by the NIH Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. While research has suggested that time in nature is important for mental health, studies examining the effects on young children are limited. ECHO investigators addressed this research gap by analyzing information from parents about th
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
10-Apr-2024
Preschoolers in front of the screen: let's turn it off so they can connect!
Preschoolers who use mobile devices more frequently have lower quality and quantity of parent-child interaction than their peers who do not use them
EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY
Preschoolers who use mobile devices more frequently have lower quality and quantity of parent-child interaction than their peers who do not use them. Researchers from the Alpha Generation Lab at the Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, hypothesized that mobile phone use takes time away from and interferes with social activities, thereby degrading the quality of time spent together, according to their article published in the journal Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
"A total of 72 parent-child pairs took part in our research. The parents reported on the family's device use habits and time spent together in a questionnaire, but their interaction with and behaviour toward their children was also observed in a laboratory study," shared Dr. Krisztina Liszkai-Peres, the lab's researcher and first author of the study.
The researchers included 47 mobile-using preschoolers in the study: they considered a child as a mobile user if they had been using the device for at least 6 months and spent at least 2 hours per week using it actively such as playing games. The non-user group included 25 children who, according to their parents, had actively used a mobile phone or tablet only up to 5 times in their lifetime (passive screen time, e.g. watching videos, was not an exclusion criterion).
"For the survey, we developed a 31-item parent questionnaire to assess parents' and children's digital media use habits, children's problematic mobile use, and the family’s shared digital and non-digital (real-life) leisure activities. In the laboratory, we measured the quality of parent-child interaction in two different situations: in a 5-minute long free play session, during which the child-parent pairs were free to play with any of the games provided, and a 5-minute long structured play session," explained Dr. Veronika Konok, research fellow at the Department of Ethology and lead researcher of the Alpha Generation Lab.
In the structured game, the parent-child pair had to draw using the classic drawing board (etch-a-sketch), where one knob should be turned to draw vertically and the other to draw horizontally, and the two knobs should be turned simultaneously to draw a diagonal line. The task for the parent and child was to work together to draw a pine tree or a house by one of them turning one knob and the other turning the other. The researchers then analyzed videos of the interactions looking for indicators of the quality of the parent-child relationship. They found five aspects by which the interactions could be generally characterized: interactivity (e.g., child initiates interaction to which parent responds), parental control (parent physically or verbally controls child), attention towards partner (e.g., they look at each other), collaboration (they work on task together), and shared fun (e.g., parent and child laugh together).
"We found that the interactions of mobile-using children and their parents during joint play were of poorer quality than those of non-mobile-using children and their parents. There was less interactivity, less attention to each other and less parental control," summarizes Dr. Krisztina Liszkai-Peres.
However, the results of the questionnaire study show that joint, real-life (non-digital) activities help to prevent the child's mobile use to become problematic:
if the family spends more screen-free time together, it is less likely that the mobile-using child will become addicted
or that the child's mobile use will lead to regular family conflicts. However, shared digital activities have not been shown to be this effective, probably because they do not provide the high-quality social situations that are essential for the development of secure attachment and the various skills (e.g. self-regulation) that a child needs.
"There could be several factors behind the association. On the one hand, a child's use of digital devices takes time away from social activities, resulting in slower development of social skills, which may also manifest itself in parent-child interaction. In addition, we found that
children who use mobile devices tend to have parents who also engage in higher levels of digital media use,
leading to an overall decline in the family’s joint real-life activities, and thus a decline in the quality of interactions. However, there can also be an inverse causation: poorer parent-child relationships can lead to both parties paying more attention to digital devices," says Dr. Veronika Konok.
"It is important to note, however, that mobile phone use is not an evil thing itself. It is more important that even if children do use such a device, they have enough time for other non-digital activities such as exercise, sleep and, as the research shows, screen-free family time together. The latter can be seen as a protective factor against the development of problematic digital device use," said Dr. Krisztina Liszkai-Peres.
The researchers therefore recommend parents to engage with their children in as many screen-free activities as possible.
This will not only help their children develop personal relationships and social skills, but also prevent problematic device use. Parents have an exemplary role to play in media literacy. By following the right strategies, they can ensure a healthy and supportive environment for their children.
JOURNAL
Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
ARTICLE TITLE
Association between the use of mobile touchscreen devices and the quality of parent-child interaction in preschoolers
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