ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY
COPING WITH POVERTY
Impacts of Environment and
Attention in the Inner City
FRANCES E. KUO is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–
Champaign in the departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
and Psychology. Her research examines impacts of the environment on healthy human
functioning in individuals, families, and communities.
ABSTRACT: Considerable evidence suggests that exposure to “green” environments
can enhance human effectiveness and make life’s demands seem manageable. Does
this phenomenon extend to poor inner cities, where green space is minimal and life’s
demands may be overwhelming? In 145 urban public housing residents randomly
assigned to buildings with and without nearby nature, attentional functioning and
effectiveness in managing major life issues were compared. Residents living in buildings
without nearby trees and grass reported more procrastination in facing their
major issues and assessed their issues as more severe, less soluble, and more longstanding
than did their counterparts living in greener surroundings. Mediation tests and
extensive tests for possible confounds supported the attention restoration hypothesis—
that green space enhances residents’ effectiveness by reducing mental fatigue. These
findings suggest that urban public housing environments could be configured to
enhance residents’ psychological resources for coping with poverty.
Whether ‘tis nobler . . . to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.
To die, to sleep . . . to sleep, perchance to dream.
Hamlet, Act III, scene i
5
AUTHOR’S NOTE: A portion of these findings were presented in invited testimony to
the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC) and at the
28th International Conference of the Environmental Design Research Association in
Montreal, May 1997. The data for this study were drawn from the Coping with Poverty
archive, a multistudy research effort supported by a grant from NUCFAC to Frances
Kuo and William Sullivan. This work was also supported by the Cooperative State
Research, Education and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under
ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. 33 No. 1, January 2001 5-34
© 2001 Sage Publications, Inc.
Urban public housing residents face a sea of troubles—an array of troubles
sufficient to cause despair, hopelessness, and resignation. And yet without
the hopefulness and energy to tackle these troubles, residents are
doomed to remain in a course of continued or deepening poverty. As state
and federal funding for entitlements reaches new lows in the United States,
there is an urgent need to find low-cost ways of helping poor families become
self- sufficient. Do environmental designers and environmental design
researchers have anything to contribute? Are there changes to the physical
environment of public housing that could help give residents the strength to
“take arms” against their troubles, and by opposing, potentially end them?
This study examines whether the presence of nearby nature might lend
urban public housing residents the psychological resources to grapple with
the challenges facing them. More specifically, it examines whether natural
elements in the public housing outdoor environment—trees and grass—can
assist in restoring the very psychological resources likely to be depleted in the
struggle against poverty.
Does the presence of trees and grass outside a public housing apartment
building affect residents’ capacity to tackle the critical issues in their lives?
Both theory and evidence on the relationship between contact with nature
and effective functioning suggest it might.
PREVIOUS WORK ON CONTACT WITH NATURE
AND EFFECTIVE LIFE FUNCTIONING
Reports of the rejuvenating, invigorating effects of spending time in natural
settings have arisen in the writings of philosophers (e.g., Thoreau, 1892/
1995), naturalists (e.g., Leopold, 1949), landscape architects (e.g., Olmsted,
1865/1968), and urban participants of Outdoor Challenge programs (see R.
Kaplan, 1984). Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan, 1995) provides a
potential explanation for why contact with nature might have a rejuvenating
effect, resulting in renewed effectiveness.
6 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
Project No. ILLU-65-0387. Thanks and credit go to many individuals. William Sullivan
assisted in research design and the measurement of green space; Rebekah Coley
trained and supervised resident interviewers, Esther Davis and Doris Gayles recruited
and interviewed participants; Robert Taylor Homes residents provided interviews;
and the management of the Chicago Housing Authority was helpful throughout.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Frances E. Kuo,
Human-Environment Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, 1103 S. Dorner,
Urbana, IL, 61801. Electronic mail may be addressed to f-kuo@uiuc.edu
Attention Restoration Theory. Kaplan notes that many settings, stimuli,
and tasks in modern life draw on a critical resource for effective functioning:
the capacity to deliberately direct attention, or pay attention. The information-processing
demands of everyday life—traffic, phones, conversations,
problems at work, and complex decisions—all take their toll, resulting in
mental fatigue. In contrast, natural settings and stimuli such as landscapes
and animals seem to effortlessly engage our attention, allowing us to attend
without paying attention. For this and a number of other reasons (see Kaplan,
1995), nature provides a respite from deliberately directing one’s attention.
As a consequence, Kaplan suggests, time spent in nature allows us to recover
from mental fatigue and leaves us with enhanced effectiveness and a sense of
rejuvenation.
Empirical work. A review of the literature reveals 16 studies bearing on
these proposed effects. In 14 of these 16, one or more of the predicted effects
was statistically significant. Chronologically, these are Kaplan (1984); Mang
(1984), described in Study 1 of Hartig, Mang, and Evans (1991); Cimprich
(1990), described in Cimprich (1993); Hartig (1990), described in Study 2 of
Hartig et al. (1991); Canin (1991); Gilker (1992), described in Tennessen and
Cimprich (1995); two studies in Kaplan (1993); Macdonald (1994); the first
study in Hartig, Boeoek, Garvill, Olsson, and Gaerling (1996); Lohr,
Pearson-Mims, and Goodwin (1996); Ovitt (1996); Miles, Sullivan, and Kuo
(1998); Taylor, Kuo, and Sullivan (2001; this issue); and Taylor, Wiley, Kuo,
and Sullivan, 1998.
One of the compelling features of this body of work is the persistence of
positive findings in spite of low power. Of the 14 studies with positive findings,
few involve strong manipulations: Only 5 involve extended exposure (>
30 min) to a truly natural setting, and 5 studies involve surrogates of nature
(e.g., pictures, views, interior plants). Most (10) of the studies involve field
settings in which there was no experimenter control over conditions.
Although the use of such settings has the benefit of strengthening external
validity and generalizability, the lack of control in such settings also
increases within-condition variability, decreasing power. And finally, almost
half of these studies employ relatively small samples, with condition ns as
low as 13 to 20 in 3 studies and 9 to 12 in 3 others. Each of these factors—
weak manipulations, lack of experimental control, and small sample sizes—
undermines the capacity to detect effects of nature. Under these conditions,
the presence of null findings is unsurprising, and the persistence of positive
findings may point to a large, robust effect. According to the principles for
calculating power (Howell, 1982), studies with high within-condition
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 7
variability and low sample size will only reliably find effects if the effect size
is large.
The diversity of methodologies employed in these studies makes the persistence
of positive findings particularly compelling. Correlational,
quasi-experimental, and experimental designs have been employed; comparisons
have been made both within and between subjects; and comparisons
have been made along different dimensions (e.g., naturalness of setting, frequency
of contact with nature, total time spent in nature). Because different
research designs guard against different confounding variables, the variety of
research designs in this body of work helps offset the frequent lack of experimental
control, strengthening the case for internal validity.
The diversity of operational definitions employed in this body of studies
also speaks to the generalizability of these findings. The independent variable,
nature, has been examined in a wide range of forms, including wilderness,
urban parks, views of urban nature, interior plants, and images of
nature. Outcome measures have been similarly diverse. Exposure to nature
has yielded reliably superior performance on objective measures ranging
from standard neuropsychological measures of attention to simple laboratory
tests of cognition and “real world” cognitive tasks such as proofreading. Positive
findings have also been obtained with a variety of self-report measures
indexing attention, effectiveness, and effectiveness-related constructs (e.g.,
job strain).
Nonetheless, it should be noted that 2 of the 15 studies depart from the pattern
of significant positive findings. One study found a systematic negative
relationship between nature and effectiveness (Larsen, Adams, Deal,
Kweon, & Tyler, 1998), and another obtained only null findings (Study 2 in
Hartig et al., 1996). Although it is unclear at present how the anomalous negative
finding might be explained, the null finding might be attributed to the
small sample size (9 Ps per condition) and weak manipulation employed (12
minutes of nature or urban slides, interspersed with questions about the
slide-viewing conditions).
On the whole, then, the empirical literature to date provides reasonable
confidence in the restorative effects of nature on attention and effectiveness.
The phenomena that Thoreau, Leopold, and Olmsted observed appear to be
systematic. Moreover, the empirical literature suggests that the rejuvenating
effect of nature extends to far less “pure” forms of nature than wilderness and
that it results in systematically greater effectiveness on a wide variety of
tasks. Thus, the previous work on contact with nature and effectiveness raises
the hopeful possibility that, in poor inner-city neighborhoods, the availability
of even relatively weak forms of nature could enhance residents’ effectiveness
in the tasks they face.
8 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS STUDY
This study tests whether the availability of green views and nearby green
spaces in poor inner-city neighborhoods enhances residents’ effectiveness in
coping with poverty. In doing so, it helps address three basic challenges in the
study of nature and effectiveness.
One basic challenge in the research on nature and effectiveness is to determine
which forms or doses of nature enhance effectiveness and which do not.
For example, do desert landscapes have an effect? vest pocket parks? nature
sounds? Is a 5-minute exposure enough? This study examines whether very
low doses of residential nature are sufficient to produce detectable enhancements
in effectiveness. By examining very low levels of nature, this study
may help establish the lower limits of the nature-effectiveness dose-response
curve. And by examining residential nature, this study may help establish the
extent to which the effects of nature on performance are subject to habituation:
That is, does the effect of a given nature stimulus wear off with repeated
or continued exposure? If so, everyday forms of nature (e.g., residential and
workplace nature) are likely to be most susceptible to habituation.
A second basic challenge in the research on nature and effectiveness is to
identify the mechanism(s) underlying the nature-effectiveness relationship.
For example, is effectiveness enhanced through attention? arousal? positive
affect? some combination of these factors? Previous studies have shown that
nature is reliably associated with both enhanced attentional functioning (as
measured by laboratory and standard neurocognitive measures of attention)
and enhanced everyday functioning, but they have left open the question of
whether these are actually independent benefits. This study uses mediation
testing (Baron & Kenny, 1986) to more closely examine whether the effects
of nature on life functioning can be attributed to its effects on attention; such
testing also helps address the question of whether the link between nature and
effectiveness is causal.
A third basic challenge in the research on nature and effectiveness is to
identify the tasks or performance domains enhanced by exposure to nature—
to delineate nature’s sphere of influence. For example, does contact with
nature enhance performance in sports requiring concentration? Scholastic
Aptitude Test scores? Social functioning? Previous research on nature and
effectiveness has focused on what might be termed “everyday cognition” or
“day-to-day effectiveness”: the individual’s effectiveness in managing the
myriad small tasks and challenges of everyday existence (e.g., proofreading
some writing, organizing one’s day, deciding what to make for dinner). This
study examines whether nature’s impact extends to the management of the
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 9
most important issues in an individual’s life, such as deciding whether to pursue
a master’s degree and finding employment.
The potential costs of an individual failing to address the major issues and
challenges in his or her life are the stuff of tragedy: important problems and
decisions deferred, major opportunities lost, central problems rendered
increasingly intractable through neglect. To the extent that facing and dealing
with one’s major life issues draws on attentional resources, attentional
fatigue may lead to neglect and ineffectiveness in the management of one’s
life course. By the same token, attentional restoration might enhance the
management of one’s life course. Hence, it seems valuable to determine
whether nature’s restorative powers extend to the domain of major life-issues
management. For individuals who live in urban public housing and whose
major challenges are likely to include unemployment and inadequate education,
the consequence of failing to address “the big picture” may be continued
and deepening poverty, at immense cost to themselves, their families, and
society.
Summary. Three hypotheses were central in this study:
Hypothesis 1: The capacity to deliberately direct attention is important not only
for day-to-day functioning but for the management of major life issues.
Hypothesis 2: Relatively low levels of nearby vegetation are sufficient to reduce
attentional fatigue.
Hypothesis 3: By reducing attentional fatigue, the presence of nearby vegetation
enhances the management of major life issues.
To test these hypotheses, structured interviews and attentional tests were conducted
with urban public housing residents. Attentional performance and
self-reports of effective major issues management were then compared for
residents living in buildings with relatively high versus relatively low levels
of nearby nature.
METHOD
The data presented here were collected as part of the Coping with Poverty
archive, a multistudy research effort examining the effects of the physical
environment on the functioning of individuals, families, and communities
residing in urban public housing.
10 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
THE SITE: A NATURAL EXPERIMENT ON THE EFFECTS OF NEARBY NATURE
Robert Taylor Homes (RTH) in Chicago, Illinois, meets a rare combination
of methodological requirements for studying the effects of nearby
nature. In essence, RTH constitutes a naturally occurring field experiment on
the effects of residential vegetation, with random assignment of individuals
to vegetation conditions and a host of environmental and social variables held
constant.
First, whereas the amount of vegetation in neighborhood common spaces
at RTH varies considerably from building to building, the high-rise buildings
are identical in architecture and share a single 3-mile corridor (see Figure 1).
Thus, RTH is distinct from most communities, in which vegetation is confounded
with physical environmental factors related to income. At RTH,
such physical factors as building size, building layout, the number of residential
units in a building, and building location are not only unconfounded with
vegetation but also held constant, removing several important sources of
extraneous variability.
Second, public housing policies result in random assignment of residents
with respect to levels of nearby nature. Although urban public housing applicants
can specify their choice of development, they have little choice of
where they will be assigned within a development. To examine whether selfselection
might play a role in the assignment of residents to levels of nearby
nature at RTH, participants were asked what criteria were important to them
in choosing a place to live: Of 118 responses, 93% were clearly unrelated to
levels of vegetation.1
About 7% of the responses referred to criteria that might
indirectly be related to levels of vegetation (e.g., location, neighborhood,
area, environment), and one participant (of the 145) specifically reported that
natural setting was important to her in choosing a place to live; however,
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 11
Figure 1: Attrition Has Left Some Buildings Surrounded Almost Entirely by
Concrete and Asphalt and Others With Pockets of Green
analyses indicate that these participants lived in no greener areas, on average,
than the remainder of the participants in this study. Thus, the level of nearby
nature does not seem to be an important criterion in residents’ selection of
apartments within RTH; moreover, it appears that the level of choice residents
have in selecting an apartment is sufficiently low that even residents
who might strongly value access to nature are no more likely to be assigned to
a green area.
Third, residents have little role in the landscaping outside their building.
When RTH was originally built in the 1960s, trees and grass were planted
around each of the 28 high-rise buildings. Over time, the majority of these
green spaces have been paved in an effort to keep dust down and maintenance
costs low; this paving has killed many of the original trees, leaving some
buildings with completely barren common spaces, others with a few scattered
trees, and still others with leftover pockets of green. Ongoing landscape
maintenance at RTH is handled entirely by a small landscaping crew serving
all of the developments managed by the Chicago Housing Authority; residents
are not involved in maintenance, and funds are inadequate to fulfill special
requests from residents. Thus, a relationship between greenness of
common spaces and effective functioning in this setting cannot be explained
by a process in which especially effective residents have made their surroundings
greener.
Finally, RTH residents constitute a strikingly homogeneous population
with respect to many of the individual characteristics that might be expected
to affect effective life functioning: income, education, life circumstances,
and perhaps most important, economic opportunities. This, again, decreases
sources of extraneous variability, increasing the power to detect variability
associated with differences in the physical environment.
PROCEDURE, PARTICIPANTS, AND DESIGN
To maximize participants’ ease in responding, interviewers were selected
to be as similar to interviewees as possible. Three African American woman
residents of RTH were hired and trained to conduct the recruitment, interviewing,
and testing for this research. All three were long-time residents of
RTH (19 years or more) and resided in buildings outside the study sample.
Thus, interviewers were matched to interviewees in race, gender, socioeconomic
status, life circumstances, background, and such subtleties as patterns
of speech and dress.
In preparation for interviewing and testing, interviewers completed extensive
training (50 hours of general training in interview methods, 12 hours
learning the specific interview measures used, and 14 hours of supervised
12 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
and unsupervised practice in performing practice interviews). In addition, an
on-site research supervisor met regularly with the interviewers to review procedures
and address any difficulties or questions. Interviewers did not interview
individuals with whom they were previously familiar, and interviewers
were counterbalanced for nature condition.
Recruitment was conducted door-to-door in buildings spanning the range
of vegetation of RTH. Sampling was restricted to 18 buildings; the 10 buildings
adjacent to parks, police stations, and other relatively unique features
were excluded to minimize effects of extraneous factors on residents’ access
to nearby nature. Within buildings, sampling was restricted to apartments on
Floors 2 through 4, where residents’ had maximum physical and visual
access to the trees outside their building (there are no residences on the first
floor).
Recruitment criteria included not only environmental factors but resident
characteristics. To examine the life functioning of residents with the greatest
responsibilities, recruitment focused on heads of household younger than 65.
Because official adult residents in urban public housing are predominately
female (80% in RTH; Chicago Housing Authority, 1995), recruitment
focused on female heads of household. Residents who fit these criteria were
invited to participate in a University of Illinois study about life at RTH. Participants
were told that they could refuse to answer any question, that they
could stop the interview at any time, and that they would receive $10 on completion
of the interview.
Of the 158 qualified residents invited to participate, 92% chose to do so,
yielding a final sample of 145 residents, 69 with relatively low levels of
nearby nature and 76 with relatively high levels of nearby nature. The composite
participant profile is that of a 34-year-old African American single
woman with a high school or equivalency diploma, raising three children on
an annual household income less than $10,000.
Individual interviews were conducted during summer and fall months in
participants’ apartments. Residents’ attentional capacity, life functioning,
and a number of control variables likely to be associated with life functioning
were assessed as part of a 45-minute structured interview.
MEASURES
Nearby nature. Levels of nearby nature were assessed using standardized
sets of photographs and multiple independent raters. For each of the 18 buildings
to be sampled, a standardized set of photographs was taken of the area
immediately surrounding the building—as Figure 2 shows, each standardized
set comprises 16 photographs showing views from 16 specified vantage
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 13
points. Then, 22 undergraduate and graduate students in horticulture independently
rated levels of nearby nature in each of the 18 sets of photographs
(1 rating per set of 16 photographs, for a total of 18 ratings per observer); their
ratings were averaged to produce a summary Greenness Rating for each
building. Greenness Ratings for the 18 buildings ranged from 0.8 to 3.6 on a
response scale from 0 to 4 (0 = not at all green, 1 = a little green, 2 = somewhat
green, 3 = quite green, 4 = very green).
With these data, agreement between raters is analogous to the reliability of
items in a scale; the hope is that different raters will respond to a particular
building in a similar fashion. Thus, to assess interrater agreement, a
Cronbach’s alpha was calculated, with individual raters treated as individual
items in a scale and individual buildings treated as individual respondents.
This procedure yielded an alpha of .97, indicating a high level of agreement
between raters with regard to building greenness.
Greenness Ratings were used as the basis for assignment to two condi-
tions.2
Buildings whose ratings fell below the midpoint of the range were designated
Barren; buildings whose ratings were at or above the midpoint were
designated Green. Greenness Ratings for the 7 buildings in the Barren condition
ranged from 0.8 to 1.7, with a mean of 1.2. Greenness Ratings for the 11
buildings in the Green condition ranged from 2.0 to 3.6, with a mean of 2.6. In
interpreting the condition labels, it should be noted that none of the buildings
14 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
Figure 2: Plan View of an Apartment Building at Robert Taylor Homes With
Nearby Trees
NOTE: The numbers within the building indicate apartments. The arrows indicate the position from
which photographs were taken (for each building), photos that were then rated by 22 independent
raters. Note that despite the presence of trees outside a building, residents in particular apartments
may have little or no visual access to trees.
were completely barren (having a 0 Greenness Rating). It should also be
noted that because raters were encouraged to use the entire response scale,
even a high greenness rating of 3.6, or very green, is relative to the range of
vegetation at RTH—and even the greenest pockets at RTH contain only grass
and a small number of trees. Nonetheless, within the context of RTH, the
labels Barren and Green seem appropriate characterizations of the two conditions
(see Figure 1).
Attentional capacity. The capacity for directed attention was assessed
with the Digit Span Backwards (DSB) test. DSB is a standardized neurocognitive
measure and is used in the measurement of attentional fatigue
(Cimprich, 1990; Schwartz, 1994; Tennessen & Cimprich, 1995) as well as in
the clinical measurement of attention (Lezak, 1983; Mesulam, 1985). DSB is
particularly useful for field settings because it is easy to administer: The
administrator reads aloud a series of digits (e.g., 2 . . . 5 . . . 1), and participants
are asked to repeat back the series in reverse order (e.g., 1 . . . 5 . . . 2). Series
are administered in increasing length; if a participant fails a series of a given
length, a second series of equal length is administered. Scoring was based on
the longest series performed correctly within two attempts.
Life functioning. For the purpose of assessing the management of major
life issues, a new instrument was developed. This instrument was modeled
closely on Little’s (1983) Personal Projects methodology, in which participants
first list their personal projects and then assess or characterize those
projects in a series of Likert-style items. The content and wording of items in
this instrument were first based on similar items in Little’s instrument, then
refined through extensive discussion with resident interviewers and pretesting
with residents.
This instrument begins with the participants’ identification of their most
important issues. Three categories of issues are assessed: Major Goals, Major
Problems, and Major Decisions. For example, to elicit Major Goals, participants
are told,
This set of questions is about the kinds of goals that you may have for yourself
or your family. Where would you like to be in 5 years, or 10 years? What would
you like to accomplish? What do you want to make happen in your life?
Participants are then asked to list some of their major goals and, of the goals
listed, to nominate the two most important goals. For each of the two most
important goals, participants rate their overall importance on a 0 to 4 scale
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 15
(0 = not at all, 1 = a little, 2 = a medium amount, 3 = quite, and 4 = very). Participants’
effectiveness in managing these issues is then assessed in additional
items using the same scale. An analogous procedure is used in eliciting
and assessing Major Problems and Major Decisions.
Table 1 presents the items used in assessing participants’ effectiveness in
managing major life issues, the Ineffective Management of Major Issues
(IMMI) Scale. The IMMI consists of 24 items; 12 items are asked first in reference
to the respondent’s most important issue, then in reference to their
second-most important issue. Four specific topics are probed: the perceived
difficulty of participants’ most important life issues, participants’ neglect of
those issues, the length of time these issues have been of concern, and the current
state or severity of the issues. The Difficulty, Length, and Severity
subscales assess coping outcomes; the Neglect subscale assesses coping
behavior likely to lead to poor long-run outcomes (see Suls & Fletcher, 1985,
for a meta-analysis showing the long-term costs of avoidant coping).
A number of initial analyses provide some confidence in the reliability
and validity of this new measure. First, the IMMI has an alpha of .81, comparable
or superior to the reliabilities reported for the vast majority of instruments
designed to measure coping (for reviews, see Latack & Havlovic,
1992; Parker & Endler, 1992).
Second, intercorrelations between subscales revealed a coherent, sensible
pattern of relationship between the various subscales. The Length of major
16 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
TABLE 1
Ineffective Management of Major Issues Scale
Difficulty
How difficult or challenging is [this issue]?
How hopeless do you feel about [this issue]?
Neglect
Have you found that you have been putting off working on this goal?
Has delaying working on this goal cost you in some ways?
Do you feel you could take a more active role in trying to achieve this goal?
How much have you been putting this decision off?
[In this decision] how inclined do you feel to just go with the option that requires
the least thought?
Has delaying this decision cost you in some ways?
Length
For how much time has [this issue] been a problem or worry for you now?
Severity
How serious are the consequences if this issue isn’t resolved?
How serious are the impacts of it right now in your everyday life?
How important is it that this issue be resolved in the very near future?
NOTE: Each item is asked with respect to two major issues.
issues was related to their Severity (r = .51, p < .0001), and problems judged
to be more difficult were also reported to be more long-standing (r = .53, p <
.0001) and more severe (r = .49, p < .0001). Furthermore, the more difficult a
respondent found her major issues to be, the more she tended to neglect them
(r = .18, p = .03). Finally, there was some suggestion that the more a participant
neglected her major issues, the more long-standing her issues were (r =
.17, p = .06) and the more severe their current state (r = .14, p = .11). That the
patterns of relationship between the subscales are sensible lends some degree
of assurance that the items may have been successful in tapping into their
intended constructs.
Finally, the importance ratings for the most important problems and decisions
follow sensible patterns. As can be seen in Table 2, mean importance
ratings were at or near ceiling, and standard deviations were small, suggesting
that the issues rated were, indeed, very important issues in residents’ lives
and consistently so. On average, the most important issue was rated more
important than the second-most important issue, paired t(144) = 3.61, p =
.0004. The test-retest reliability of IMMI remains to be determined; however,
the data available thus far suggest that the IMMI is a valid and reliable scale
tapping into respondents’ most important life issues.
Other factors likely to affect life functioning. So that potential confounds
might be identified and statistically controlled, a number of extraneous variables
likely to be related to nearby nature, attention, or life functioning were
assessed through self-report. These included participants’ age, marital status,
education, employment, income, household size, number of children, years
in current apartment, years in public housing, importance of nearby nature or
views in selecting an apartment, health, stress, mood, social integration, use
oftobacco, useofalcohol, useofprescription drugs, anduseofother drugs.
In addition, interview, household, and participant characteristics that
might affect measures of attention or life functioning were assessed by the
interviewers. These included the number of interruptions, level of background
noise, level of privacy, and the participants’ comfort in talking. Each
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 17
TABLE 2
Importance of Major Life Issues
Goal Decision Problem
M SD M SD M SD
Most important 3.72 .56 3.80 .53 3.74 .59
Second-most important 3.63 .58 3.66 .61 3.56 .69
0-4 scale: 0 = not at all important to 4 very important.
of these variables was rated on a 0 to 4 scale (0 = not at all, 1 = a little, 2 = a
medium amount, 3 = quite a lot, 4 = very much).
RESULTS
Results are presented in four subsections. First, the major life issues in
participants’ lives are characterized. Second, attentional capacity and management
of major issues in this sample are characterized. Third, the central
hypotheses are tested. And finally, a series of analyses explore a number of
alternative explanations for the central findings.
MAJOR ISSUES IN THE LIVES OF INNER-CITY PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS
Frequency analyses of participants’ most important goals, problems, and
decisions provide a sense for the most common major challenges these individuals
face. Although there was by no means complete uniformity in the
issues reported across individuals, a few issues emerged repeatedly.
Among participants’ most important goals, the most commonly reported
were to get a job or to get some specific type of job (31%), to move out (25%),
and to go to school or to go back to school (12%). An additional 11% of goals
reported were goals that participants had for their children or families. Typical
goals included getting a job, to be a kindergarten teacher, employment,
moving out of projects, saving money to move, move out of the development,
starting school in the fall, going back to school for GED, education, sending
daughter toschool, arranging daycarefor child, andbetter lifefor grandson.
In the collection of participants’ most important “problems, worries, and
concerns,” the most commonly mentioned were parenting problems, moneyrelated
problems, and safety-related problems. Parenting problems (30%) included
raising children right, being a good parent, keeping son out of gang,
and daughter getting pregnant. Money-related problems (29%) included getting
a job, financial, keeping bills paid, having food each month, not enough
food for children, and running out of medicine. Safety problems (16%)
included violence, making it home safe, and stray bullets in window, and of
these, half (or 8% of all problems listed) concerned children’s safety: for
example, children getting shot atandchildren’ssafety while playing outside.
Participants’ most important decisions centered around the same major
concerns of children or parenting (26%), money or getting a job (19%), moving
out (14%), and education (10%). In addition, a substantial number of
decisions pertained to the management of household responsibilities (16%).
18 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
Participants reported choices such as whether to keep third child or give up
for adoption, whether to put son (21 years old) out of apartment, whether to
take time out for one kid so that they won’t be “easy influence (sic) to do the
wrong thing,” what high school to send oldest child to, whether to go back to
school, and whether to let children play downstairs (not safe).
Overall, participants’ major life issues may be roughly characterized in
terms of three themes: coping with poverty, coping with violence, and raising
children under these conditions. It seems clear that the effectiveness with
which inner-city residents manage these challenges will have important consequences
for themselves, for their families, and for society at large. For the
individuals and their children, the possible consequences of ineffective management
of these issues include deprivation, incarceration, injury, and death.
For society at large, the consequences of ineffective management of these
issues include increased demands on social services, the health care system,
and the criminal justice system, as well as the loss of human resources.
LEVELS OF ATTENTION AND MAJOR ISSUES MANAGEMENT IN THE INNER CITY
Participants’ DSB scores provide some indication of the attentional
resources in this inner-city population. According to Lezak (1983), scores of
4 or 5 on this version of the DSB test are within normal limits, depending on
the individual’s educational level. In this sample, the mean DSB score was
4.8, with a standard deviation of 1.1. Thus, taking into account the range of
educational levels in this sample, DSB scores largely fell within normal limits.
More striking and perhaps more important, however, is the wide distribution
of scores within these limits, indicating substantial variation in
attentional resources in this sample.
Participants’ scores on the IMMI scale and subscales provide some indication
of how effectively these individuals are (or perceive themselves to be)
managing the major issues in their lives. On a 0 to 4 scale (0 = not at all, 1 = a
little, 2 = a medium amount, 3 = quite a lot, 4 = very much), mean IMMI scale
scores indicate that, overall, participants assessed their management to be
moderately ineffective (see Table 3). On average, participants’ responses
indicate that they found their major issues to be somewhat difficult and
long-standing, that they neglected these issues a little, and that these issues
had quite severe consequences for their lives. Again, however, the central tendencies
are less striking than the wide distributions in the scores. As the standard
deviations in Table 3 indicate, there was a wide range of effectiveness in
the management of major issues; participants differed substantially from one
another in the extent to which they neglected their major issues and in how
difficult, long-standing, and severe they judged these issues to be.
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 19
Together, these data suggest that levels of attentional functioning and life
functioning range widely in this population. We may now ask whether variations
in attentional functioning and in levels of nearby nature (and hence,
access to attentionally restorative places and views) account for some of the
variation in life functioning.
TESTING OF CENTRAL HYPOTHESES
To examine whether Attention Restoration Theory generalizes to the
management of major issues and to relatively low doses of nature, each of the
links posited in the theory was tested in turn. A series of analyses examined
the relations between attention and the management of major issues (Hypothesis
1), nearby nature and attention (Hypothesis 2), and nearby nature and the
management of major issues (Hypothesis 3). After testing each of the proposed
links, mediation was tested according to Baron and Kenny (1986).
Results are presented below: unless otherwise indicated, findings are significant
at p < .05.
Hypothesis 1. If the effects of attentional fatigue on day-to-day life functioning
generalize to the management of major life issues, attentional performance
should be systematically associated with IMMI scores. Indeed,
ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions indicate that performance on the
DSB test significantly predicts IMMI scale scores (β = –.23) as well as scores
on the Neglect subscale of the IMMI (β = –.27, p = .001). The direction of
these relationships was as hypothesized: DSB performance was negatively
associated with scores on the IMMI and IMMI subscales, indicating that the
poorer a participant’s attentional functioning, the more ineffective she was in
managing her major life issues and the more she procrastinated in addressing
these issues. These findings fulfill one of five statistical criteria for mediation:
showing that the proposed mediator is significantly associated with the
dependent variable.
20 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
TABLE 3
Management of Major Issues, for All Participants
M SD
Ineffective Management of Major Issues scale 2.10 (.53)
Difficulty subscale 1.98 .87
Neglect subscale 1.62 .72
Length subscale 2.36 .85
Severity subscale 3.13 .65
NOTE: 0-4 scale: 0 = not at all ineffective to 4 = very ineffective.
Hypothesis 2. If the restorative effects of nearby nature on attention generalize
to the low doses of nature in this context, residents living in Barren conditions
should, on average, show more signs of attentional fatigue than their
counterparts living in Green conditions. Figure 3 shows the distributions of
DSB scores for participants living in these two conditions; as predicted, the
distribution of scores in the Barren condition is shifted to the left, indicating
that participants living in these conditions tended to score lower on DSB than
did their counterparts. Indeed, mean DSB scores were significantly lower in
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 21
Figure 3: Histograms of Attention and Life Functioning Scores for Barren Versus
Green Conditions
NOTE: The bar graphs show the results for one measure of attention (Digit Span Backwards test
[DSB]), a summary measure of life functioning (Ineffective Management of Major Issues Scale
[IMMI]), and four subscales for life functioning.
the Barren condition than in the Green condition, differing by almost half a
standard deviation (see Table 4). These findings fulfill a second criterion for
mediation: showing that the independent variable is significantly associated
with the proposed mediator.
Hypothesis 3. If the levels of nearby nature in this context are sufficient to
measurably affect attention (Hypothesis 2), and if attention is an important
resource for the management of major issues (Hypothesis 1), then the management
of major issues may be more effective in individuals with greater
access to nearby nature. Figure 3 shows the distributions of IMMI scale
scores and IMMI subscale scores for participants living in relatively barren
and relatively green surroundings. As predicted, the distribution of scores in
the Barren condition is shifted right for each of these measures, indicating
that residents living in Barren conditions assessed themselves to be more
ineffective in managing their major life issues than did their counterparts.
Table 4 confirms that IMMI scale scores and subscale scores were significantly
higher in the Barren condition than in the Green condition. These findings
indicate that participants living in relatively green surroundings were
more effective in managing their major life issues overall. More specifically,
participants living in relatively green surroundings procrastinated less in
addressing their major issues, found their issues to be less difficult, and
reported them to be less severe and less long-standing. Mean differences
ranged from about one third to one half of a standard deviation. These findings
fulfill a third criterion for mediation: showing that the independent variable
is significantly associated with the dependent variable.
22 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
TABLE 4
Attentional Functioning and Management of Major Issues in Barren Versus
Green Conditions
Barren Green
Condition Condition
M SD M SD t Statistic p Value
Digit Span Backwards test 4.64 1.2 4.96 1.0 –1.74 .05
Ineffective Management
of Major Issues scale 2.20 .58 2.00 .46 2.40 .01
Difficulty subscale 2.18 .99 1.81 .73 2.53 .01
Neglect subscale 1.72 .76 1.52 .67 1.76 .05
Length subscale 2.59 .89 2.17 .77 2.96 .005
Severity subscale 3.28 .59 3.01 .68 2.47 .01
NOTE: t tests are one-tailed.
Mediation testing. If nearby nature enhances residents’ effectiveness via
its effects on attention, then the nature-effectiveness relationship should statistically
depend on the nature-attention relationship. Specifically, if attention
is the sole mediator of the nature-effectiveness link, then that link should
disappear when attention is controlled; if attention is a partial mediator, then
the nature-effectiveness link should diminish but remain significant when
attention is controlled. An OLS multiple regression in which both greenness
and DSB were used to predict IMMI scores indicates that, when DSB is controlled,
the relationship between greenness and IMMI scores is no longer significant
(unstandardized beta = –2.29, p = .13). This finding is consistent with
a complete mediation interpretation and fulfills a fourth criterion for mediation:
showing that the proposed mediator can account for the relationship
between the independent and dependent variables. Moreover, this finding
helps address an important question left open in previous research. One possible
interpretation of previous findings is that the effects of nature on attention
and effectiveness are simply two independent phenomena. This analysis
squarely addresses that possibility and finds direct evidence against it.
This analysis also helps address another important alternative interpretation
to the current findings, the possibility of spuriousness (Evans & Lepore,
1997). Some or all of the relationships found thus far could potentially be
traced to some unspecified confounding variable, in which case, the natureattention
and nature-effectiveness links found here could simply be artifacts
of this confound. To check for spuriousness, Evans and Lepore (1997) recommend
seeing if the relationship between the proposed mediator and
dependent variable remains significant when the independent variable is controlled.
Consistent with the mediation hypothesis and counter to the possibility
of spuriousness, DSB remained a significant predictor of IMMI with
Greenness controlled in a multiple regression (unstandardized beta = –2.87,
p < .05). This fulfills a final criterion for mediation: showing that the relationships
between the variables in question cannot be attributed to some confounding
factor.
Together, these findings are consistent with the proposed relationships
between nearby nature, attention, and management of major issues.
Attentional performance is systematically higher in individuals living in
greener surroundings; management of major issues is systematically more
effective for individuals whose attentional performance is robust and for individuals
living in greener surroundings; mediation analysis indicates that the
“effect” of green surroundings on the management of major issues may be
fully mediated through attention; and the same analysis indicates that these
relationships are not an artifact of some unspecified confounding variable.
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 23
EXAMINATION OF SPECIFIC POSSIBLE CONFOUNDS
As Evans and Lepore (1997) note, “the best way to deal with spuriousness
is to anticipate potentially spurious factors and build them into one’s design
and analysis” (p. 267). In this study, a substantial number of potentially spurious
factors were anticipated and addressed. It seemed plausible that variables
in each of the following six general categories might have systematic impacts
on DSB performance and IMMI scores: demographic characteristics, household
characteristics, well-being, substance use, social ties, and interview
characteristics. Accordingly, a number of variables in each of these categories
were assessed in the interview process; altogether, data were collected on
23 specific possible confounding variables. To test for confounds, then, a
series of analyses examined relationships between each of these 23 variables
and levels of nearby nature, attention, and effectiveness. Table 5 schematically
depicts the results of this series of analyses, with Xs denoting the presence
of a significant association.
In each column of the table, there are a number of Xs, indicating that DSB
scores, IMMI scores, and the level of nearby nature were each significantly
related to a number of the possible confounding variables.3
An examination
of the rows in the table finds no rows that contain three Xs, indicating that
none of the potential confounding variables examined was significantly
related to all three of the central variables in this study. Thus, among the
potential confounds tested, no single variable can account for a complete set
of relations between nature, attention, and life functioning found here.4
Could one of the possible confounding variables examined account for the
link between attention and life functioning? There is one row in which two Xs
appear. Participants’ age was significantly related to both attention and major
issues management: In OLS regressions, age was negatively related to DSB
performance (β = –.20) and positively related to IMMI scores (β = .26, p <
.01), indicating that both attention and the management of life issues decline
with age. To address this confound, age and DSB were entered as predictors
of IMMI scores in a multiple regression. With age controlled, DSB scores
remained significantly related to IMMI (β = –.22). (Age likewise remained a
significant predictor with DSB controlled, β = .21.) These findings indicate
that the relationship between attentional functioning and major issues management
cannot be attributed solely to their shared tendency to decline with
age. Neither age nor any of the other 22 potential confounding variables
examined can account for the relationship between attention and major issues
management.
Might any of these potential confounding variables account for the differences
in attention and major issues management between nature conditions?
24 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
Comparison of column 3 with columns 1 and 2, respectively, shows that although
some social ties measures were significantly associated with nature
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 25
TABLE 5
Relations of Attention, Life Functioning,
and Nearby Nature to Potential Confounds
Digit Span Ineffective
Backwards Management of Nearby
Test Major Issues Scale Nature
Demographics
Age X X —
Education X — —
Employment — — —
Income — X —
Household
Size of household — — —
Marital status — — —
Number of children — — —
Years in apartment — X —
Years in public housing — X —
Well-being
Health rating — — —
Health symptoms — X —
Stress — X —
Positive mood X — —
Substance use
Tobacco X — —
Alcohol — — —
Prescription drugs — — —
Other drugs — — —
Sources of social support
Neighborhood social ties — — X
General social ties — — —
Interviewer ratings
Number of interruptions — — —
Background noise X — —
Privacy — — —
Perceived rapport — — —
NOTE: X’s indicate relationships significant with an α of .05. In interpreting this table, it should be
noted that the α was set at .05 per comparison. Typically, the number and posthoc nature of these
analyses would suggest a familywise α to minimize the probability of a Type I error (false hit).In these
circumstances, however, the concern is to minimize the probability of a Type II error (failure to detect
a confound), and the greater sensitivity of a per comparison α provides greater confidence that there
are no undetected confounds among those tested.At the same time, significant relations in this table
should be taken with a grain of salt; it should be noted that even in the absence of any true relationships
among the various pairwise combinations tested, 69 comparisons with an α of .05 per comparison
would yield a mean of 3.45 significant relations arising solely due to chance (false hits).
(see note 3), none of these measures were significantly related to DSB or
IMMI. Thus, among the many potential confounding variables examined, the
effects of nature on attention and major issues management found here cannot
be attributed to demographic differences, differences in household characteristics,
differences in well-being or substance abuse, differences in social
ties, or differences in interview characteristics across conditions.
DISCUSSION
In 145 adults randomly assigned to a series of architecturally identical
apartment buildings, IMMI scores indicated that individuals who had some
nearby vegetation were significantly more effective in managing their major
life issues than were their counterparts living in barren environments. Furthermore,
as would be predicted if this relationship were mediated by attention,
(a) residents living in greener settings demonstrated reliably better
performance on measures of attention; (b) IMMI scores of effective life functioning
were directly proportional to attentional performance; (c) the relationship
between vegetation and life functioning scores became
nonsignificant when attention was controlled; and (d) the relationship
between attentional performance and life functioning scores remained robust
when vegetation was controlled (thus checking for spuriousness). Consistent
with this, extensive follow-up analyses revealed no confounds due to either
chance or systematic condition differences in demographics, household
haracteristics, well-being, substance abuse, social ties, interview character istics,
or attitudes toward nature. In the absence of detectable confounds,
Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan, 1995) provides the only ready explanation
for these findings: Exposure to nature causes attentional restoration,
thereby enhancing life functioning. Below, implications for the study of coping,
the relationship between humans and the natural environment, and our
understanding of the inner city are discussed in turn.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF COPING
By examining a topic squarely in the domain of the coping literature—the
management of major life issues—this study highlights and demonstrates the
potential contributions Attention Restoration Theory can make to the understanding
of coping.
One contribution of the theory and the findings here is to suggest that attentional
resources play an important role in effective coping, giving possible
26 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
new insight into both intra- and interindividual differences in coping. That is,
individual differences in the capacity to direct attention may be the source of
(some) individual differences in coping style,
5
and fatigue-related fluctuations
in attentional resources may explain heretofore mysterious inconsistencies
in individual coping behavior—for example, avoidant coping in a
normally problem-focused individual (e.g., Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). The
finding that distractibility and daydreaming (two symptoms of attentional
fatigue) are associated with procrastination in decision making (Harriott,
Ferrari, & Dovidio, 1996) lends some support to these notions.
Another contribution of Attention Restoration Theory and the current
findings is to suggest the physical environment as an important resource in
coping. Research and theory on coping has focused almost exclusively on
social support as an external resource for coping (Parker & Endler, 1996);
this work suggests that the physical context matters as well and points to a
possible new focus for intervention efforts. For example, one prescription for
managing particularly difficult or demanding life circumstances might be for
individuals to seek out attentionally restorative settings on a more regular
basis (Canin, 1991; Cimprich, 1993). Another might be to avoid attentionally
draining settings (Cohen & Spacapan, 1978; Kaplan, 1987) where possible.
And perhaps by creating less mentally fatiguing, more attentionally restorative
environments, city planners, public housing managers, and hospital
designers could help people help themselves.
Finally, the work here makes a methodological contribution to the study of
coping. The vast majority of coping measures focus on coping style—an individual’s
propensity to approach issues in a particular manner (e.g., avoidant,
problem-focused, emotion-focused)—either in general or with respect to a
specific single issue (see Parker & Endler, 1992). By contrast, the IMMI scale
indexes both coping style and coping outcomes (through the Neglect subscale
and Length, Severity, and Difficulty subscales, respectively) with
respect to the respondent’s most important life issues. By sampling multiple
specific issues (the two most important goals, two most important problems,
and two most important decisions), this technique provides a more representative
sampling of an individual’s coping than a single-issue measure can,
without sacrificing the higher reliabilities attained when specific issues are
used as referents (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989). Thus, IMMI complements
the existing repertoire of coping measures in a number of respects.
Initial analyses indicate IMMI to be a reliable and coherent measure, with
a Cronbach’s alpha of .81 and sensible patterns of association between
subscales. One indication of IMMI’s validity as a measure of effective life
functioning is that IMMI scores are significantly predicted by a number of
variables likely to either contribute to, or reflect, ineffective functioning:
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 27
poor health, stress, age, and number of years in public housing. In future
work, it will be important to examine test-retest reliability, check for independent
corroboration (from family members, for instance), and test for concurrent
validity through comparisons with existing measures of coping or
self-efficacy.
HUMANS AND THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
This work also contributes to our understanding of the relationship
between humans and the natural environment. First and most obviously, it
extends the empirical literature testing Attention Restoration Theory. As
reviewed earlier, numerous previous studies have found positive associations
between nature and attention, nature and effectiveness, or both. Is the natureeffectiveness
relationship truly causal? And can it be traced to nature’s
effects on attention? One of the novel features of this work was the statistical
testing of the mediation hypothesis embodied in Attention Restoration Theory;
although mediation testing alone cannot conclusively establish causal
links from nature to attention to effectiveness, the findings here substantially
strengthen the case for such links. In future research, one way to further test
the mediation hypothesis might be to expose participants to a series of
attentionally draining stimuli and nature stimuli over time, then examine the
resulting fluctuations in attention and effectiveness.6
A second contribution of this work to our understanding of the relationship
between humans and the natural environment is to reinforce a theme that
has woven through much previous research: the power of nature. It is striking
that the presence of a few trees and some grass outside a 16-story apartment
building could have any measurable effect on its inhabitants’ functioning. It
is all the more surprising that such a modest dose of nature could enhance an
individual’s capacity to manage the most important issues in her life, with an
effect size comparable to that of major factors such as health and age. Previous
research on dormitory and office views (Kaplan, 1993; Tennessen &
Cimprich, 1995) has suggested that views of nature have benefits even when
the views are quite familiar; the findings here suggest that the effects of
nature do not habituate even with extremely long exposures, on the order of
10 years (see also Moore, 1981).
Evolutionary theory provides an interesting framework for interpreting
these and previous findings on the power of nature for the human species.
Consider the following. First, habitat selection theory suggests that organisms
will tend to be drawn toward settings in which they are likely to thrive
(e.g., Orians, 1986), and a voluminous literature has established the strong
human preference for settings with natural elements (for review, see Kaplan
28 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
& Kaplan, 1989). Second, ethological research across a variety of species has
established that animals housed in unfit habitats undergo social and psychological
breakdown, showing disturbances in play, parenting patterns, and
social behavior (for a review, see Wilson, 1971). And studies in Chicago public
housing examining individuals randomly assigned to settings with
extremely low levels of nearby nature are showing a similar profile of disturbances
in each of these domains (Kuo & Sullivan, 1995; Kuo, Sullivan, Coley,
& Brunson, in press; Taylor et al., 1998). Perhaps one interpretation for the
human preference for relatively natural landscapes and the apparent effects
of nature on blood pressure, heart rate, mood, day-to-day effectiveness,
social behavior, cognitive functioning, and work performance (e.g., Canin,
1991; Hull & Michael, 1995; Kaplan, 1993; Lohr et al., 1996; Mooney &
Nicell, 1992; Tennessen & Cimprich, 1995; Ulrich, 1981) is that nature is an
essential component of a fit human habitat. Regular contact with nature may
be as important to our psychological and social health as the regular consumption
of fruit and vegetables is to our physical health.
BEHAVIOR AND FUNCTIONING IN THE INNER CITY
Theories regarding ineffective patterns of behavior and functioning in the
inner city focus on people: on individuals, on the social context, and on such
concepts as “a culture of poverty.” This study contributes to our understanding
of these phenomena by suggesting a different focus and a different diagnosis.
That is, perhaps the pathology is in the place, not the people.
This author has previously suggested that the crowding, noise, and danger
of poor inner-city neighborhoods are likely to contribute to chronic mental
fatigue on the part of inner-city residents, particularly when juxtaposed with
the attentional demands associated with poverty and single parenting (Kuo,
1992). Chronic mental fatigue, in turn, may contribute to a positive feedback
cycle between ineffective coping behaviors and poor coping outcomes:
Unremitting levels of attentional fatigue lead to the chronic neglect of pivotal
life issues; as these issues are deferred, they become increasingly long-standing
and serious, making them appear all the more daunting and contributing
to their further neglect. Thus, the continual attentional wear and tear of the
inner-city setting may contribute substantially to patterns of passivity and
ineffectiveness that have often been attributed to the residents themselves. If
a single mother living in attentionally overwhelming circumstances makes
repeated efforts to pull herself up by the bootstraps and repeatedly fails, it is
possible that she is weak or lazy, but it is also possible that she is simply
exhausted.
Kuo / COPING WITH POVERTY 29
In a context where countless programs directed at assisting individuals in
their efforts to overcome poverty—some elaborate and expensive—have
produced no detectable effects (Cisneros, 1995), this study identifies an
easy-to-manipulate environmental feature that is clearly and strongly associated
with more effective functioning. Although successfully addressing poverty
will most likely require an array of interventions, of which
environmental interventions might be a small part, certainly greening is a low
cost intervention in comparison with most social service programs. And the
literature on the many positive side-effects of community gardening in poor
urban neighborhoods suggests that resident-based greening efforts could
play a surprisingly valuable role in the arsenal of weapons against poverty.
This study suggests that, in poor inner-city neighborhoods, planting a few
trees may help provide individuals and families the psychological resources
needed to “take arms against a sea of troubles.”
NOTES
1. Nearly half of the responses (47%) reflected the simple need for shelter: “just needed a
place.” About 12% of responses regarded safety or cleanliness, 10% regarded access (to work,
school, or family), 9% regarded cost, 8% regarded space or number of bedrooms, and 6%
expressed the importance of having an apartment on a “low floor,” perhaps because of the frequency
of elevator malfunctions. One participant mentioned sense of community.
2. Some readers may wonder why Greenness was dichotomized instead of being treated as a
continuous variable. Because residents who shared a Greenness Rating often shared the same
building as well, a regression using a continuous Greenness Rating variable to predict outcomes
would inappropriately attribute variance due to building differences to the effect of greenness.
By contrast, conducting an ANOVA on two nature “bins” allows the variance due to building differences
to appear in both the within-treatment and between-treatment terms in the F statistic,
avoiding the misattribution problem.
3. DSB scores were systematically related to a number of variables in addition to participant
age. First, DSB scores were higher for those with more education (β = .43, p < .0001), as would
be expected (Lezak, 1983). Second, DSB scores were also significantly associated with positive
mood (β = .19), as measured by the vigor-activity subscale of the Profile of Mood States (short
version; McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1981). Third, DSB scores were lower for smokers than
nonsmokers (β = –.18, p < .0001), although not when education was controlled. And fourth, DSB
scores were higher in interviews rated by the interviewer as having more privacy (β = .39, p <
.0001).
IMMI scores were systematically related to a number of variables in addition to participant
age. As would be expected, poor life functioning was related to higher levels of stress (β = .24)
and poor health symptoms (β = .25, p = .01), and although stress and health symptoms were both
significantly related to age, the IMMI-stress and IMMI-symptoms relationships remained significant
when age was controlled. Poor life functioning was also related to the participant’s number
of years in urban public housing in general and in their apartment in particular (β = .28, p <
30 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 2001
.005 and β = .21, p < .05, respectively). And finally, poor life functioning was significantly
related to income, although not when number of years in public housing was controlled.
Measures of social integration were significantly related to nature condition. Levels of
nearby nature predicted higher scores on a composite measure of neighborhood social ties (β =
.22, p < .01), as well as on two of its three constituent measures: socializing with neighbors (β =
.21, p = .01) and knowing one’s neighbors (β = .17). For detailed presentation of these data, see
Kuo et al. (1998).
4. Two of the relatively well-established psychological impacts of contact with nature are its
impacts on stress recovery (Ulrich et al., 1991) and positive mood (e.g., Hull & Michael, 1995);
thus, it is worth noting that neither stress nor positive affect were found to mediate the
nature-effectiveness link found here. This link may simply be independent of stress and positive
affect. It is also possible that physiological measures of stress would reveal effects that a
self-report measure could not and that repeated measures of affect would reveal effects that a singleinstance
measure did not. In future work, these possibilities should be examined in settings
where physiological measures and repeated measures over time are more feasible.
5. Currently, the right prefrontal cortex may be the best candidate for the location of the
capacity to deliberately direct attention (Foster, Eskes, & Stuss, 1994; Heilman, Voeller, &
Nadeau, 1991; Molle, Marshall, Pietrowsky, & Lutzenberger, 1995); an interesting prediction
that grows from the ideas here is that individuals with weak right prefrontal activity should demonstrate
greater propensities for procrastination and avoidant coping behavior.
6. If indeed the capacity to deliberately direct attention is housed in the right prefrontal cortex,
it would be interesting to see if exposure to nature stimuli resulted in lower levels of activity
in that area.
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