Francesconi, Marta; Flouri, Eirini; Kirkbride, James B; (2022) The role of the built environment in the trajectories of cognitive ability and mental health across early and middle childhood: Results from a street audit tool in a general-population birth cohort. Journal of Environmental Psychology , Article 101847. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101847. (In press).

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Abstract

The research exploring the association between the built environment and children's mental health and cognitive abilities has produced mixed results. This may be due to the inconsistency in the approach taken to describe the built environment. This study, using data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a large general-population birth cohort, considered simultaneously several measures to describe it when the participant child was 3 years old, including neighbourhood disorder (assessed by an MCS interviewer by direct observation of several physical and social aspects of the immediate neighbourhood), area green space, air pollution, urbanicity and neighbourhood socio-economic disadvantage. It then explored its role in the trajectory of mental health (measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-SDQ) and cognitive ability (measured with the British Ability Scales-BAS) across ages 3–11 years in 4454 children of stayer families in England. Using growth curve modelling we found that neighbourhood disorder was associated with emotional symptoms and conduct problems at age 3 and with the trajectory of cognitive ability from ages 3 to 11. These associations were robust to controls for quality of the indoor housing environment and parental mental health and socio-economic status. Neither green space nor air pollution had any effect on our outcomes. Our findings shed light on the importance of specific aspects of the built environment for mental health and cognition during childhood. They also highlight the value of using direct observation of the immediate neighbourhood.The research exploring the association between the built environment and children's mental health and cognitive abilities has produced mixed results. This may be due to the inconsistency in the approach taken to describe the built environment. This study, using data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a large general-population birth cohort, considered simultaneously several measures to describe it when the participant child was 3 years old, including neighbourhood disorder (assessed by an MCS interviewer by direct observation of several physical and social aspects of the immediate neighbourhood), area green space, air pollution, urbanicity and neighbourhood socio-economic disadvantage. It then explored its role in the trajectory of mental health (measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-SDQ) and cognitive ability (measured with the British Ability Scales-BAS) across ages 3–11 years in 4454 children of stayer families in England. Using growth curve modelling we found that neighbourhood disorder was associated with emotional symptoms and conduct problems at age 3 and with the trajectory of cognitive ability from ages 3 to 11. These associations were robust to controls for quality of the indoor housing environment and parental mental health and socio-economic status. Neither green space nor air pollution had any effect on our outcomes. Our findings shed light on the importance of specific aspects of the built environment for mental health and cognition during childhood. They also highlight the value of using direct observation of the immediate neighbourhood.

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