Green cover and socioemotional and academic outcomes of school-age children. The case of Santiago, Chile

The association between green cover and health indicators has been extensively studied, pointing to important impacts on stress reduction and emotional outcomes. In addition, several studies have established a positive association between vegetation and children academic achievement. Nevertheless, none of these studies have attempted to measure the association between vegetation and socioemotional and academic outcomes of school -age children concomitantly, which is key to help understanding how vegetation could mediate these associations with children academic performance. In this work, we use socioemotional and standardized math and reading tests data, as well as satellite-derived vegetation cover data, to evaluate the association between green cover over socioemotional indicators and academic achievement of primary, middle and high-school students for the city of Santiago. Our main results suggest that school green cover is associated with improvements on socioemotional outcomes, but not directly with academic achievement. Moreover, these associations are concentrated on 8th and 10th grade students. However, only green cover within schools, but not in the surroundings, shows an association with socioemotional outcomes. Overall, evergreen vegetation presents the strongest association, followed by grass. Vegetated areas dominated by deciduous trees seem not to be associated with neither socioemotional nor academic outcomes.

Automated summary

The association between green cover and health indicators, as well as between vegetation and children's academic achievements, has been extensively studied. However, no previous studies have explored the simultaneous impact of vegetation on socioemotional outcomes and academic achievements of school-age children. This study investigates the association between green cover, socioemotional indicators, and academic achievement among primary, middle, and high-school students in Santiago.