Abstract
Aspects of the living environment can affect health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. Whereas most previous studies assessed the more distant residential urban environment, less is known on possible effects of the close environment. The present study investigated associations of the proportion of streets and green spaces in the immediate urban living environment (50, 100 and 400 m around the home) with media use, outdoor activity, overweight/obesity and emotional problems in two samples of younger (age 3–10, n = 395) and older children (age 10–19, n = 405). Independently of socioeconomic parameters, a higher proportion of streets was associated with overweight/obesity (in younger and older children), higher media use (in younger children), less outdoor activity and more emotional problems (in older children). Older children’s outdoor activity in winter increased with increasing proportions of green spaces. The observations suggest that the immediate urban living environment is a factor that can affect leisure behavior and health in children.
Highlights
The present study investigated associations between the immediate living environment in a German city and different aspects of behavior and health in children and adolescents
Overweight/Obesity was present in 10% of the younger and nearly 20% of the older children
The analyses revealed no significant associations between parameters of the environment and outdoor activity or emotional problems in the younger children
Summary
The present study investigated associations between the immediate living environment in a German city and different aspects of behavior and health in children and adolescents. Socioecological approaches such as the Ecological Framework for Human Development [1] underline the importance and interactions of individual prerequisites and the immediate as well as the more distant physical and social environment in shaping behavior, wellbeing and health. Children and adolescents are creative actors who shape their living environment and develop coping strategies to get the best out of any environment. The immediate living environment may have a direct or indirect effect on leisure behavior and health, Int. J. Public Health 2020, 17, 6321; doi:10.3390/ijerph17176321 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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