Community Greening, Fear of Crime, and Mental Health Outcomes.
Am J Community Psychol
; 69(1-2): 46-58, 2022 03.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34333789
ABSTRACT
Unmaintained vacant land in urban areas is associated with a number of negative outcomes for residents of urban areas, including mental and physical health, safety, and quality of life. Community programs which promote land parcel maintenance in urban neighborhoods have been found to reverse some of the effects that unmaintained land has on nearby residents. We explored how land parcel maintenance is associated with mental health outcomes using data collected in Flint, MI in 2017-2018. Trained observers assessed the maintenance of approximately 7200 land parcels and surveyed 691 residents (57% Female, 53% Black, M age = 51). We aggregated resident and parcel rating data to 463 street segments and compared three structural equation models (SEM) to estimate the mediating effects of fear of crime on the association of parcel qualities on mental distress for residents. We found that fear of crime mediated the association between parcel maintenance values and mental distress indicating that poor maintenance predicted more fear of crime which was associated with mental distress. Our findings add to our understanding about the mechanism by which vacant lot improvements may operate to enhance psychological well-being of residents who live on streets with vacant and unkept lots.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Quality of Life
/
Crime
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Aspects:
Patient_preference
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
Am J Community Psychol
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Estados Unidos