Adolescents express more positive emotional responses to natural vs. built design features in an urban environment

Many countries recognize urban environments as important determinants of health. They also recognize adolescent mental health as a growing concern. Yet, research focusing on the mental health of adolescents in urban environments is scant. This study addresses this concern by investigating how specific urban designs are linked to the mental health of adolescents.

This study was conducted in Kitchener, Ontario (Canada), a medium-sized urban area with a population of over 260,000 people. Twenty-three youth (age 9-17) participated in one-on-one interviews as they walked with a researcher along a predetermined route near and in downtown Kitchener. The walk included seven stops, ranging from highly built-up areas (downtown street and public transit hub) to more natural areas (lake and park/open space). The interviews, ranging in length from 65 to 105 minutes, were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Interview questions were geographically linked to different spaces along the walk, with participants being encouraged to comment on features they deemed most important to them in each of the spaces. Participants were also asked to share their emotions and feelings relating to the different settings. Interview responses were analyzed in relation to how pedestrian and transit-oriented design (PTOD) and cognitive architecture (CA) features related to indicators of the adolescents’ mental health (i.e. emotional responses). PTOD, a planning and design strategy for promoting more sustainable and active urban lifestyles, considers five design qualities: imageability (physical qualities that leave an impression, invoking one's sense of place), enclosure (giving a 'room-like' quality, invoking a sense of identification with the place), human scale (how the physical qualities of a space aligned with human activity), transparency (how much one can see or perceive beyond the street, linked to one's awareness of space), and complexity (richness of the surroundings, connected to one's engagement in the space). Design qualities relating to CA (a design strategy with implications for connections between mental health and cognition) include biophilia, symmetries, and fractal patterns.

Interview responses revealed “considerably different perceptions regarding natural versus built enclosure and landmarks, significantly more expressed emotional engagement with visually rich and transparent urban designs relative to grey/concrete and windowless designs, and strong positive reactions to the three cognitive architecture concepts.” Responses also identified connections between nature-based features (sights and sounds) and “creative, relaxing, and inviting feelings.” High levels of artificial noise (e.g. traffic noise), on the other hand, were linked to more anxious feelings and mental fatigue. Findings revealed some differences between boys and girls. Boys, for example, valued variety of active uses as a positive design feature more so than girls. Girls placed greater importance on scale features that support safety, nature exposure, social opportunity/lingering, and place accessibility than boys. Girls also expressed more feelings of calmness and peacefulness in the urban garden than boys.

This research illustrates ways in which PTOD and CA concepts might be useful in planning urban environments supportive of adolescent mental health. The findings can also be useful in promoting the achievement of different U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, including “universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for children.”