City Know-hows
Do neighbourhood characteristics impact upon the mental health of urban children? In this paper, I examine indicators of urban physical (dis)order as possible influences on children’s behavioural well-being.
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Target audience
Urban planners and policy makers; public health workers and officials; community leaders and local organizations.
The problem
It’s long been understood that mental health problems concentrate in areas of lower socioeconomic status, but how neighbourhood characteristics might influence mental health and well-being is far less clear.
What we did and why
I used data from a cross-sectional survey of children’s health to ascertain the relationships between parent-reported evaluations of children’s mental well-being and visible aspects of physical (dis)order in their neighbourhood. This allowed for the identification of neighbourhood characteristics that may represent potential risk or protective factors for children’s mental health.
Our study’s contribution
My findings suggest that some indicators of neighbourhood physical disorder—specifically the presence of noise, graffiti, and vandalism — are associated with a greater risk for some mental health problems in children. On the other hand, markers of neighbourhood physical order—neighbourhood cleanliness and well-cared-for dwellings — may have a protective effect.
Impacts for city policy and practice
Should neighbourhood (dis)order prove to have a causal role in mental health problems, it represents a significant opportunity for intervention for community planning and development. Compared to neighbourhood social disorder elements such as vagrancy, drug and alcohol use, crime, and difficulty with neighbours – the elements of physical disorder considered here are more readily modifiable through municipal intervention and investment, beyond increases to policing and other forms of social control.
Further information
Full research article:
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