Not all ‘greenness’ is equal: Influence of perceived neighborhood environments on psychological well-being in Chicago

Abstract

Neighborhood greenness is of growing importance to understand the quality of urban life, including outcomes tied to health and well-being. However, all greenness may not lead to the same outcomes in racially and ethnically segregated cities. There are many factors associated with the influence of greenness, including perceptions of the physical and social environments. By using multilevel logistic regression analysis, this study investigated differences in psychological well-being associated with neighborhood greenness, park use frequency, and perceived neighborhood physical and social settings in Chicago, IL. We used individual-level health data of 4517 Chicago respondents in 77 neighborhoods, which were aggregated into three distinct regions of the city and drawn from the 2020 Healthy Chicago Survey (HCS); neighborhood greenness was measured using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Results suggest that: (1) greenness was significantly associated with psychological well-being in Chicago’s North region but not in the other regions; (2) more frequent park use was associated with psychological well-being in the North region but not in the other regions; (3) neighborhood safety was the strongest predictor of psychological well-being in all three regions of Chicago. This study offers theoretical and practical insights on the need for comprehensive assessment that can help disentangle and differentiate the levels of care and maintenance in urban green spaces. By coupling NDVI with geographic differences, researchers can better capture the complex interplay between different aspects of greenness and urban residents’ well-being.