IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0228659.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urbanicity, biological stress system functioning and mental health in adolescents

Author

Listed:
  • Brittany E Evans
  • Anja C Huizink
  • Kirstin Greaves-Lord
  • Joke H M Tulen
  • Karin Roelofs
  • Jan van der Ende

Abstract

Growing up in an urban area has been associated with an increased chance of mental health problems in adults, but less is known about this association in adolescents. We examined whether current urbanicity was associated with mental health problems directly and indirectly via biological stress system functioning. Participants (n = 323) were adolescents from the Dutch general population. Measures included home and laboratory assessments of autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning, neighborhood-level urbanicity and socioeconomic status, and mother- and adolescent self-reported mental health problems. Structural equation models showed that urbanicity was not associated with mental health problems directly. Urbanicity was associated with acute autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity such that adolescents who lived in more urban areas showed blunted biological stress reactivity. Furthermore, there was some evidence for an indirect effect of urbanicity on mother-reported behavioral problems via acute autonomic nervous system reactivity. Urbanicity was not associated with overall autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity or basal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning. Although we observed some evidence for associations between urbanicity, biological stress reactivity and mental health problems, most of the tested associations were not statistically significant. Measures of long-term biological stress system functioning may be more relevant to the study of broader environmental factors such as urbanicity.

Suggested Citation

  • Brittany E Evans & Anja C Huizink & Kirstin Greaves-Lord & Joke H M Tulen & Karin Roelofs & Jan van der Ende, 2020. "Urbanicity, biological stress system functioning and mental health in adolescents," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-24, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0228659
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228659
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228659
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228659&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0228659?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jim van Os & Gunter Kenis & Bart P. F. Rutten, 2010. "The environment and schizophrenia," Nature, Nature, vol. 468(7321), pages 203-212, November.
    2. Sanne C T Peeters & Vincent van de Ven & Ed H B M Gronenschild & Ameera X Patel & Petra Habets & Rainer Goebel & Jim van Os & Machteld Marcelis & Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis (G.R.O.U.P.), 2015. "Default Mode Network Connectivity as a Function of Familial and Environmental Risk for Psychotic Disorder," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-19, March.
    3. Leviton, L.C. & Snell, E. & McGinnis, M., 2000. "Urban issues in health promotion strategies," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(6), pages 863-866.
    4. de Vries, Sjerp & van Dillen, Sonja M.E. & Groenewegen, Peter P. & Spreeuwenberg, Peter, 2013. "Streetscape greenery and health: Stress, social cohesion and physical activity as mediators," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 26-33.
    5. Florian Lederbogen & Peter Kirsch & Leila Haddad & Fabian Streit & Heike Tost & Philipp Schuch & Stefan Wüst & Jens C. Pruessner & Marcella Rietschel & Michael Deuschle & Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, 2011. "City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress processing in humans," Nature, Nature, vol. 474(7352), pages 498-501, June.
    6. Rosseel, Yves, 2012. "lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i02).
    7. Brittany E Evans & Kirstin Greaves-Lord & Anja S Euser & Joke H M Tulen & Ingmar H A Franken & Anja C Huizink, 2013. "Determinants of Physiological and Perceived Physiological Stress Reactivity in Children and Adolescents," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-13, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luca S. D’Acci, 2020. "Urbanicity mental costs valuation: a review and urban-societal planning consideration," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 19(2), pages 223-235, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jessica L Reed & Enrico D’Ambrosio & Stefano Marenco & Gianluca Ursini & Amanda B Zheutlin & Giuseppe Blasi & Barbara E Spencer & Raffaella Romano & Jesse Hochheiser & Ann Reifman & Justin Sturm & Kar, 2018. "Interaction of childhood urbanicity and variation in dopamine genes alters adult prefrontal function as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Luca S. D’Acci, 2020. "Urbanicity mental costs valuation: a review and urban-societal planning consideration," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 19(2), pages 223-235, November.
    3. Sanne C T Peeters & Vincent van de Ven & Ed H B M Gronenschild & Ameera X Patel & Petra Habets & Rainer Goebel & Jim van Os & Machteld Marcelis & Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis (G.R.O.U.P.), 2015. "Default Mode Network Connectivity as a Function of Familial and Environmental Risk for Psychotic Disorder," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Lærke Mygind & Matt P. Stevenson & Lasse S. Liebst & Ivana Konvalinka & Peter Bentsen, 2018. "Stress Response and Cognitive Performance Modulation in Classroom versus Natural Environments: A Quasi-Experimental Pilot Study with Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-15, May.
    5. Chongxian Chen & Weijing Luo & Ning Kang & Haiwei Li & Xiaohao Yang & Yu Xia, 2020. "Study on the Impact of Residential Outdoor Environments on Mood in the Elderly in Guangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Pei Yi Lim & Denise Dillon & Peter K. H. Chew, 2020. "A Guide to Nature Immersion: Psychological and Physiological Benefits," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-26, August.
    7. Sonia Nawrocka & Hans De Witte & Margherita Pasini & Margherita Brondino, 2023. "A Person-Centered Approach to Job Insecurity: Is There a Reciprocal Relationship between the Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions of Job Insecurity?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-27, March.
    8. Md. Mominur Rahman & Bilkis Akhter, 2021. "The impact of investment in human capital on bank performance: evidence from Bangladesh," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Masashi Soga & Kevin J. Gaston & Yuichi Yamaura & Kiyo Kurisu & Keisuke Hanaki, 2016. "Both Direct and Vicarious Experiences of Nature Affect Children’s Willingness to Conserve Biodiversity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-12, May.
    10. César Merino-Soto & Gina Chávez-Ventura & Verónica López-Fernández & Guillermo M. Chans & Filiberto Toledano-Toledano, 2022. "Learning Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-L): Psychometric and Measurement Invariance Evidence in Peruvian Undergraduate Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    11. Jing Jing, 2022. "Seeing Streetscapes as Social Infrastructure: A Paradigmatic Case Study of Hornsbergs Strand, Stockholm," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 510-522.
    12. Nathaniel Oliver Iotti & Damiano Menin & Tomas Jungert, 2022. "Early Adolescents’ Motivations to Defend Victims of Cyberbullying," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-9, July.
    13. AJ Golio, 2024. "Whose Neighborhood Now? Gentrification and Community Life in Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods," Working Papers 24-29, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    14. Peter Tavel & Bibiana Jozefiakova & Peter Telicak & Jana Furstova & Michal Puza & Natalia Kascakova, 2022. "Psychometric Analysis of the Shortened Version of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale on the Slovak Population (SWBS-Sk)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, January.
    15. Allen, Jaime & Eboli, Laura & Forciniti, Carmen & Mazzulla, Gabriella & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "The role of critical incidents and involvement in transit satisfaction and loyalty," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 57-69.
    16. Christoph Dworschak, 2024. "Bias mitigation in empirical peace and conflict studies: A short primer on posttreatment variables," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 61(3), pages 462-476, May.
    17. Andreea-Ionela Puiu & Anca Monica Ardeleanu & Camelia Cojocaru & Anca Bratu, 2021. "Exploring the Effect of Status Quo, Innovativeness, and Involvement Tendencies on Luxury Fashion Innovations: The Mediation Role of Status Consumption," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, May.
    18. Slupphaug, KJell & Mehmetoglu, Mehmet & Mittner, Matthias, 2024. "modsem: An R package for estimating latent interactions and quadratic effects," OSF Preprints h3rpw, Center for Open Science.
    19. Andres Trujillo-Barrera & Joost M. E. Pennings & Dianne Hofenk, 2016. "Understanding producers' motives for adopting sustainable practices: the role of expected rewards, risk perception and risk tolerance," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 43(3), pages 359-382.
    20. Daria J. Kuss & Lydia Harkin & Eiman Kanjo & Joel Billieux, 2018. "Problematic Smartphone Use: Investigating Contemporary Experiences Using a Convergent Design," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0228659. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.