Abstract
ABSTRACT According to Life History Theory, environments with abundant and reliable resources encourage ‘slow’ (deliberative) strategies that are low-risk and focused on long-term outcomes. Arguably, greener neighbourhoods may approximate such environments, especially in urban settings. This study used the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study to investigate the role of greenness of the child’s immediate residential area at ages 9 months and 3, 5, 7, and 11 years in reward and punishment sensitivity, measured using the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT), at age 11 years. Our sample was the children who lived in urban areas at all five time-points and with data on the CGT at the fifth (n = 5,012). Consistent with Life History Theory, we found that children in the least green areas were more likely to engage in ‘fast’ decision strategies than other children: they showed higher sensitivity to reward (or lower sensitivity to punishment). This association was robust to adjustment for confounders.
Highlights
Risk-taking and reward-seeking are strongly related to mental health (Miu et al, 2017; Simons & Arens, 2007; Zuckerman & Kuhlman, 2000)
We examined the associations in the urban Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) sample, excluding rural dwellers, because neigh bourhood greenspace may be confounded with levels of rurality (White et al, 2013)
This study’s analytic sample included children who, as at the age 11 sweep, had lived in urban areas in the UK consistently since the beginning of MCS, and had valid data on reward and punishment sensitivity, which was measured with the Cambridge Gambling Task at age 11 years
Summary
Risk-taking and reward-seeking are strongly related to mental health (Miu et al, 2017; Simons & Arens, 2007; Zuckerman & Kuhlman, 2000). A reward-processing framework is especially useful for understanding motivation, in turn associated with many health, educational and socioeconomic outcomes (Eccles et al, 1998). Life History Theory proposes that environments with abundant and reliable resources encourage ‘slow’ (delibera tive) strategies that are low-risk and focused on long-term outcomes. This theory posits that exposure to environmental harshness leads to a focus on the immediate future and the production of ‘fast’ strategies, for example, the tendency to seek quick rewarding stimuli and more risk-taking behaviours (Ellis et al, 2009)
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