Physical environment correlates of psychosocial health among urban residents

This study examines the hypothesis that the psychosocial health of urban dwellers is related to characteristics of the physical environment in which they reside. For each of 100 Atlanta city blocks, 21 indices of deviant psychosocial behavior were obtained, as were 104 physical environment indices (such as landscaping and nearby land use), and 106 sociocultural environment indices (such as population density and income). Factor analysis was used to define relatively independent variables measuring both the physical and sociocultural environment, and regression analysis was used to establish associations of these variables with the indices of psychosocial health. Results indicate that characteristics of the physical environment are about as important as characteristics of the sociocultural environment in explaining variation in psychosocial health.