Coping with poverty - Impacts of environment and attention in the inner city

Considerable evidence suggests that exposure to "green" environments can en hance human effectiveness and make life's demands seem manageable. Does thi s phenomenon extend to poor inner cities, where green space is minimal and life's demands may be overwhelming? In 145 urban public housing residents r andomly assigned to buildings with and without nearby nature, attentional f unctioning and effectiveness in managing major life issues were compared. R esidents living in buildings without nearby trees and grass reported more p rocrastination in facing their major issues and assessed their issues as mo re severe, less soluble, and more long-standing than did their counterparts living in greener surroundings. Mediation tests and extensive tests for po ssible confounds supported the attention restoration hypothesis-that green space enhances residents' effectiveness by reducing mental fatigue. These f indings suggest that urban public housing environments could be configured to enhance residents' psychological resources for coping with poverty.