Noise in restorative environments - Perceptions, positive and negative environmental components in Tyrolean children

Abstract

Background: Annoyance is regarded as the most common adverse reaction to environmental noise, and yet, relatively little is known of noise annoyance in children, even though children find themselves in a vulnerable developmental period. Noise perception is usually studied as a unidimensional phenomenon with an emphasis on annoyance, disregarding positive appraisals of the acoustic environment. This study aims to explore the joint relationships between traffic noise, other built and natural environment indicators and children's perception of noise and associated environmental restorative quality. Methods: Data are gathered from a cross-section survey among 1251 children (8 - 12 years old) in the cross-border Tyrol area (Austria/Italy). Children and their mothers completed questionnaires on sociodemographics, living conditions, perceived neighborhood quality, and noise annoyance in different situations. Children's residential locations were assigned traffic noise, air pollution, and built environment/natural landscape indicators, including imperviousness density, greenness, and the composite indicator distance to nature (D2N; Rüdisser et al., 2012), which are aimed to allow an integrated prediction of noise perception and restorative quality in these children. Results: This paper will present findings on the association between contextual influences and noise perception in children, with a focus on both positive and negative appraisals of the environment.