The relationship between greenspace and children's outcomes remains largely untested in large general-population studies

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the conclusions and recommendations and limitations and stated research gap of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2025 and 2026, spanning 3 journals. Those papers have been cited 6 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 4 representative gaps

• Examining the Relationship Between Greenspace and Substance Use Among Adolescents and Young Adults: A Scoping Review (2025) · Environment and Behavior · cited 3× · doi

  Future research is needed to better understand the cultural and contextual factors that shape greenspace as a risk or protective factor to inform its inclusion in prevention and intervention efforts. This scoping review documented mixed evidence for the protective and restorative effects of greenspace on behavioral health that indicates a need for further study.

  generalconclusions
  Keywords: greenspace protective future needed better understand cultural contextual factors shape risk factor inform inclusion prevention
• Examining the Relationship Between Greenspace and Substance Use Among Adolescents and Young Adults: A Scoping Review (2025) · Environment and Behavior · cited 3× · doi

  Standardization of Greenspace Measures.  While each measurement strategy should be specific to the aims and research questions for that study, we recommend that future research gather both standardized (e.g., NDVI, Google Streetview, etc.) and self-reported (e.g., perceptions of greenspace, recall of time spent, feelings in greenspace) measures of greenspace. At minimum, this includes the activities adolescents and young adults are engaging in while in nature, duration (e.g., minutes or hours) spent in greenspace, frequency (e.g., number of days per week) spent in the greenspace, accessibility of the natural space, feelings in greenspace (e.g., perceived stress, peacefulness, improved mood/affect), and very specific details on the type of nature or greenspace in the study. Taylor and Hochuli (2017) describe greenspace as either being: 1) synonymous with nature, “bodies of water or areas of vegetation in a landscape, such as forest and wilderness areas, street trees and parks, gardens and backyards, geological formations, farmland, coastal areas and food crops” or 2) urban landscapes, “urban vegetation, including parks, gardens, yards, urban forests and urban farms” (p. 29). We recommend that researchers use conceptualizations like Taylor and Hochuli’s (2017) to describe the type of greenspace being investigated in each study. Moreover, we recommend that future research includes details on other factors that may be relevant to peoples’, and particularly adolescents’, experiences in the greenspace of study. For example, the presence of supervisors (e.g., park rangers, lifeguards), the time of year/average temperature, the usage or crowdedness of the space, and any cost associated with access or activities within the greenspace. This list is not comprehensive but provides Environ Behav. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2025 October 16. A u t h o r M a n u s c r i p t A u t h o r M a n u s c r i p t A u t h o r M a n u s c r i p t A u t h o r M a n u s c r i p t Fenton et al. Page 14 a sample of the types of questions that researchers should consider when characterizing their space. Providing abundant details will allow for better reproducibility and replicability across studies and for the development of targeted intervention programs. Frumkin et al. (2017) proposed a framework outlining eight steps for studying the health benefits of nature contact, including identifying a specific, measurable element of nature; identifying the key characteristics or function of the natural element; identifying moderating factors that may influence the ways people interact with nature; identifying specific and measurable forms of the human interaction with nature; identifying moderating factors that may influence whether the nature interaction has an effect on people; identifying the direct or indirect effects of the nature exposure on people; identifying moderating factors that influence if there is a benefit t

  generalrecommendations
  Keywords: greenspace nature identifying specific urban factors recommend spent space details areas moderating influence people measures
• Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Version of the Green Space Use Satisfaction Scale (2026) · Pamukkale Journal of Sport Sciences · doi

  While the scale shows high internal consistency, concurrent validity, and measurement invariance across gender groups, it remains unclear whether green space use satisfaction can predict long-term outcomes such as mental health, physical activity involvement, Pamukkale J Sport Sci, 17(1), 44-69, 2026

  generallimitations
  Keywords: scale shows high internal consistency concurrent validity measurement invariance across gender groups remains unclear whether
• Seasonal variation in the role of greenspace in child development (2026) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi

  The relationship between greenspace and children's outcomes remains largely untested in large general-population studies. Prior studies have not explicitly considered the moderating role of season. There is a need to investigate the role of greenspace in children's outcomes across different seasons.

  generalstated research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: relationship between greenspace children outcomes remains largely untested

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