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Environment and Behavior
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Coping with Poverty

Impacts of Environment and Attention in the Inner City

Frances E. Kuo

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in the departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and Psychology

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.

Environment and Behavior, Vol. 33, No. 1, 5-34 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/00139160121972846
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