Housing Quality and Children’s Socioemotional Health

An observer-based, standardized index of housing quality (structural quality, privacy, indoor climate, hazards, cleanliness/clutter, and children’s resources) is significantly related to psychological distress and a behavioral index of learned helplessness, which reflects an important component of human motivation. Independent of household income, thirdthrough fifth-grade children residing in poorer quality housing have more psychological symptoms and less task persistence than their counterparts living in better quality housing. Children spend more time in the residential environment than in any other physical setting. Yet, our knowledge of housing quality and child 389 AUTHORS’ NOTE: This research was partially supported by USDA Hatch, NY 327407, the John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1 F33 HD08473-01). We thank Kim English, Missy Globerman, and Amy Schreier for their assistance. Robert Bradley provided helpful feedback on an earlier version of this article. We are grateful to the many families who participated in our research. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Gary Evans, Department of Design and Environmental Analysis, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401; e-mail: [email protected]. ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. 33 No. 3, May 2001 389-399 © 2001 Sage Publications, Inc. © 2001 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on April 17, 2008 http://eab.sagepub.com Downloaded from development is extremely sparse and largely restricted to specific properties such as noise, crowding, or learning resources (e.g., toys) (Bradley & Caldwell, 1984; Bradley et al., 1989; Evans, Kliewer, & Martin, 1991; Wachs, 1992; Wachs & Gruen, 1982; Wohlwill & Heft, 1987). The primary objective of this study is to investigate whether overall housing quality can be related to multiple indices of children’s socioemotional development. Although research on the physical environment and children has focused on crowding, noise, and learning resources, there is a very small body of research on housing quality and children. Preschool children who live in high-rise apartments suffer negative effects related to restricted play opportunities and resulting isolation in the residential unit (Gittus, 1976; Ineichen & Hooper, 1974; Richman, 1977). Kasl, Will, White, and Marcuse (1982) found that housing quality (utility services, unit maintenance, and structural deficiencies) was associated with more punitive parenting but unrelated to inner-city minority children’s mental health. Wilner, Wackley, Pinkerton, and Tayback (1962) compared two groups of African American families living in public housing. One half of the sample remained in their original housing, and one half moved to newly renovated public housing. Parental psychological health increased, social relations with neighbors were better, and children’s performance in school showed improvement among the families who moved in comparison to those who remained. These studies of housing quality and children’s mental health used indicators of housing quality developed by epidemiologists to study conditions likely to promote physical disease, especially respiratory infections. Furthermore, because the respective samples were all restricted to low-income, inner-city minority samples, the range of housing quality was severely restricted. The present study builds on and extends this earlier work on the physical environment and children’s socioemotional health in several respects. First, we use a valid and reliable instrument to measure housing quality that was developed for the purpose of assessing the relationship between housing quality and psychological health (Evans, Wells, Chan, & Saltzman, 2000). The present housing quality index was designed to more adequately reflect the multidimensional physical qualities of housing rather than focusing solely on individual attributes such as crowding, noise, or learning resources. Our instrument incorporates observations of structural quality, privacy, indoor climate, hazards, cleanliness/clutter, and children’s resources. These attributes of housing quality are assessed by trained raters to avoid another problem that has plagued housing quality research. Prior studies have relied on residents’ self-reports of both housing quality and various health 390 ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / May 2001 © 2001 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on April 17, 2008 http://eab.sagepub.com Downloaded from outcomes, raising concerns about spurious associations stemming from shared methods variance (Evans, 1999; Halpern, 1995). A second contribution of the present study is the utilization of better outcome variables to assess socioemotional health in relation to housing quality. A standardized index of children’s psychological health, the Rutter Children’s Behavior Questionnaire, is employed to assess psychological health. We also use a behavioral measure of task persistence as an index of learned helplessness, an integral component of human motivation. Young children chronically exposed to crowding (Evans, Lepore, Shejwal, & Palsane, 1998; Rodin, 1976) and to noise (Bullinger, Hygge, Evans, Meis, & von Mackensen, 1999; S. Cohen, Evans, Stokols, & Krantz, 1986; Evans, Hygge, & Bullinger, 1995) are less likely to persist on challenging puzzles than their counterparts who are not exposed to these environmental stressors. Finally, the present study samples a wider range of income and hence housing quality than in previous studies. Prior housing quality and children’s socioemotional health studies were restricted to low-income, predominantly inner-city minority households. Families ranging from below the poverty line to 4 times the poverty line are included in the present study.