Green spaces raise chances of success.

Trees and grass in urban settings are known to help mitigate some of the detrimental effects of the built environment, including poor air quality, noise pollution, and heat buildup. Now research by environmental psychologists from the University of Illinois at Urbana--Champaign shows that a view of leafy green spaces also may help inner-city children become more academically successful through increased self-discipline.

Andrea Faber Taylor, Frances Kuo, and William Sullivan measured concentration, impulse control, and ability to delay gratification in 169 black children aged 7-12 who lived in a Chicago public high-rise project. The team chose these three traits because they play a pivotal role in the development of self-discipline and successful outcomes later in life.

In the study, published in the March 2002 Journal of Environmental Psychology, some children reported seeing varying amounts of grass and trees from their apartment windows, whereas others saw only pavement. Among the girls, the greener their view from home, the better they concentrated and performed on standard tests of impulse control and delayed gratification. However, no connection was seen between near-home views of nature and the measured traits in boys.

Boys may be less affected by trees and grass near their homes because multiples studies have shown they spend less time at home and wander farther than girls. "If we could capture the amount of nature where [boys] spend most of their time, we may find a link between nature and functioning [in them as well]," Taylor says.

This work contributes important new dimensions to the body of research showing the remarkable potential of green spaces, says Stephen Kaplan, a professor of psychology and computer science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Research by Kaplan and others in the early 1990s linked exposure to nature with fewer sick days and higher job satisfaction among adults, improved attention and scores on proofreading tasks, and faster recuperation among recovering cancer patients. Taylor's findings bolster the theory that planting trees and grass could improve the quality of life of inner-city children. Moreover, planting trees and grass is relatively inexpensive, compared to many other social support services, such as Medicaid and Head Start. Furthermore, Taylor says, "once [trees and grass] get established, they last." In comparison, many social services are subject to the vagaries of politics and funding shortages.

Studies such as Taylor's have caught the attention of Chicago mayor Richard Daley, who has presided over the planting of 300,000 trees in that city. Chicago contracts with a religious organization that hires indigent people to care for the trees and plants.