By Jenny Roe, Catharine Ward Thompson, Peter Aspinall, Mark Brewer, Elizabeth Duff, David Miller, Richard Mitchell and Angela Clow
Contact with green space in the environment has been associated with mental health benefits, but the mechanism underpinning this association is not clear. This study extends an earlier exploratory study showing that more green space in deprived urban neighbourhoods in Scotland is linked to lower levels of perceived stress and improved physiological stress as measured by diurnal patterns of cortisol secretion.
Results from analyses showed that living in areas with a higher percentage of green space is associated with lower stress, confirming the earlier study findings.
This study further extends the findings by showing significant gender differences in stress patterns by levels of green space, with women in lower green space areas showing higher levels of stress.