The role of greenspace deprivation in children’s decision-making

Abstract

We explored the role of long-term greenspace deprivation in how children evaluate potential rewards and punishments and use this information to make decisions. We used data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a large population-based longitudinal birth cohort in the UK. Reward and punishment sensitivity was measured at the age 11 data wave with the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT). Our sample (N = 1701; 51 % male) included children who, as at the age 11 wave, had lived in the same address in urban England since the beginning of MCS and had valid data on the CGT. Our analysis adjusted for families’ selection into neighbourhoods, children’s pubertal status, sex, ethnicity and cognitive ability but also several important aspects of the home’s and the neighbourhood’s physical and social environments. Even after full adjustment, children growing up in the least green neighbourhoods showed less aversion to risk (they scored higher on risk-taking), and the association was similar across sexes. However, long-term absence of local greenspace was not significantly associated with other aspects of reward and punishment sensitivity, including risk adjustment, deliberation time or delay aversion, even after minimal adjustment. Long-term greenspace deprivation seems uniquely predictive of fast decision strategies in children.