This research explored whether neighborhood greenery predicts child cognitive development. Three related questions framed the study: (1) Do children who grow up in greener neighborhoods score higher on overall cognitive ability tests? (2) Do children who grow up in greener neighborhoods display greater longitudinal change in overall cognitive ability? (3) Do children who grow up in greener neighborhoods show enhanced executive function, working memory, or attention ability by age 18? While previous research indicates that children who grow up in greener neighborhoods show enhanced cognitive development in specific domains over short timespans, it's unknown if neighborhood greenery can predict children's overall cognitive development over a longer period of time. The goal of this research was to find out if such predictions could be made.
Over 2000 children participated in this study. They were all born in 1994 and 1995 in England and Wales, lived in an urban or suburban neighborhood, and represented the full range of socioeconomic conditions in Great Britain. Assessments of participants' cognitive performance were conducted in their homes when they were 5, 12, and 18 years of age. Additional testing at age 18 assessed participants' executive function, working memory, and attention ability. Children's greenery exposure from ages 5 to 18 was based on satellite imagery measuring vegetation in 1-mile buffers around their home.
Children living in greener neighborhoods tended to score slightly higher on overall measures of cognitive ability at ages 5, 12, and 18 than children in less green neighborhoods. The larger associations were found for crystallized versus fluid cognitive ability. Fluid cognitive performance relates to one's current ability to reason and solve novel problems. Crystalized cognitive performance involves learning, knowledge, and skills acquired over a period of time. When considering longitudinal changes, results showed that children living in greener neighborhoods made slightly larger gains on measures of crystalized cognitive ability from the age of 5 to age 12. The positive associations between greenery and cognitive measures, however, did not hold after accounting for the socioeconomic status of families and neighborhoods. Additionally, children living in greener neighborhoods did not, on average, show greater growth on cognitive performance from age 12 to 18. These findings indicate that exposure to neighborhood greenery during childhood was not a significant predictor of increases in cognitive performance across childhood and adolescence or of executive function, working memory, or attention ability at age 18.
This research found that “children raised in greener neighborhoods exhibit better overall cognitive ability, but the association is likely accounted for by family and neighborhood socioeconomic factors.” The researchers note, however, that while neighborhood greenery may not directly improve children's cognitive function, “targeted greening interventions may impact other important child health and development outcomes.”
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