Association of residential and school green- and bluespace with academic performance in 10-13-year-old Polish schoolchildren with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

Background: Several studies, mostly based on the USA data, have reported that school greenspace was associated with better academic performance. However, nearly all of them were conducted on aggregated data. We are among the first individual data-based studies worldwide to examine whether exposure to school and residential green- and bluespace can boost academic performance.

Methods: NeuroSmog is an ongoing case-control study investigating the impact of air pollution on brain development in children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 658 children aged 10 to 13 years from 18 large and small towns in southern Poland constituted the analytical sample. Information about latest end-of-year school grades in Polish and maths was collected by the parent report while perceived academic performance in these subjects was collected by the Youth Self-Report. Tree, grass, and water cover, as well as overall vegetation, were abstracted in Euclidean buffers of 500 and 1000 m around concurrent school and residential addresses. Perceived green- and bluespace data were also collected. Adjusted for age, sex, parent education, financial situation, and urbanicity, logistic models were fitted to assess the associations between each exposure-outcome pair.

Result: We found no consistent associations between academic performance and school or residential green- and bluespace. This held true for children with and without ADHD.

Conclusions: Higher residential and school green- and bluespace do not seem to be sufficient for better academic performance.

Keywords: Academic achievement; Blue space; Case-control study; Children; Epidemiology; Grades; Green space; Greenness.