Growing up in disadvantaged communities can take its toll on children, with greater stress leading to mental health problems and delays in psychological development. But a decade’s worth of research suggests there’s an effective and nearly free remedy that can level the playing field with their advantaged counterparts: time in nature.
The concept, coined in 2013, is known as equigenesis. It refers to the ways in which a natural environment—typically the amount of green space in a neighborhood—can enhance equity in health and functioning. According to the concept, people living with a disadvantage, measured by factors such as income, parental education, and minority status, can benefit more from natural environments rather than favored groups.
A new article from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign synthesizes what is known about the isogenic effects of green spaces on the mental and psychological health of children living with disadvantage.
“Most epigenesis research has focused on physical health and adult populations – there have been only a few dozen studies that specifically look at differences in the mental health effects of green space in advantaged and disadvantaged children. We wanted to look holistically at this body of work to find out if patterns emerged,” said Keira Denker, who led the Children and Faberauthory’s Andrea review article. senior in Psychology at Illinois.
Although hundreds of studies have shown clear benefits from time in green space, fewer have been specifically designed to compare disadvantaged and advantaged groups. Denker and Faber Taylor found 123 such studies, covering all ages and health metrics. Almost 60% provided evidence of idiogenesis. In other words, disadvantaged people benefited more from the natural environment than their privileged peers.
This does not mean that favored groups do not also benefit. But there may be a ceiling effect. They already have the support they need and so show less drive than time in green space compared to those living with a disadvantage.”
Faber Taylor, associate professor, Department of Crop Sciences, member of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois
The team then looked deeper into a subset of 24 studies that focused on children and their psychological health. Half of the studies clearly demonstrated greater benefits of green space for disadvantaged children, showing lower levels of anxiety, behavioral difficulties and psychological and behavioral disorders, as well as improved reading and maths skills, cognitive functioning and pro-social and pro-environmental behaviours. A handful of studies had conflicting or nonsignificant results for idiogenesis, but none suggested that time spent in green space was detrimental for either group.
Although the field of idiogenesis is still young, researchers see no downside to promoting more time in natural environments, especially for children living with disadvantage. Whether they’re specifically trying to prove isogenicity or not, study after study shows numerous psychological and mental health benefits of time in the green, including stress relief, attention support, and reduced ADHD symptoms. This is in addition to the physical health benefits, from reduced cortisol and blood pressure to greater proliferation and activity of immune cells.
Denker and Faber Taylor acknowledge that green spaces such as city parks may not be accessible or provide a safe environment for children in disadvantaged neighborhoods. While they believe in reforming and multiplying neighborhood green spaces, they urge administrators and policy makers to invest in schoolyard greening, which they say provides big returns.
“Schoolyards in particular are low-hanging fruit,” Faber Taylor said. “Most children have to go to school, so they are almost guaranteed to experience this green space. There is some exciting work showing the value of green schoolyards in improving learning, particularly maths and science, and supporting movement and creative play.
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