Is Neighborhood Nature an Ecological Precursor of Parenting Practices, Infant-Parent Bonding, and Infant Socioemotional Function?

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  • Lærke Mygind
  • Christopher Greenwood
  • Primrose Letcher
  • Suzanne Mavoa
  • Kate Lycett
  • Yichao Wang
  • Flensborg-Madsen, Trine
  • Peter Bentsen
  • Jacqui A. Macdonald
  • Kimberly Thomson
  • Delyse Hutchinson
  • Craig A. Olsson
  • Peter G. Enticott

Nurturing relationships are crucial for adaptive child development. The objectives of the study were to investigate whether nature availability was associated with early nurturing parenting practices, mother-infant bonding, and infant socioemotional function. Data were from the Australian Temperament Project (n = 809 infants to 515 parents residing in Victoria, Australia) and were linked cross-sectionally to residential greenness (i.e., Normalized Difference in Vegetation Index). There were no observable associations between residential greenness within a 1,600 m network radius and parenting practices, mother-infant bonding, or infant socioemotional function. The findings were largely corroborated by sensitivity analyses (i.e., NDVI within 100, 250, 500, and 1,000 m and distance to park). Shorter distances to a park were associated with less hostile parenting. More residential greenness (1,000 and 1,600 m) was associated with stronger father-infant bonding and more hostile parenting amongst the most stressed parents in exploratory analyses. Residential greenness might be a socioecological precursor for father-infant bonding.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEnvironment and Behavior
Volume55
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)278-306
Number of pages29
ISSN0013-9165
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.

    Research areas

  • green space, infancy, social determinants of health, socioecology

ID: 370569510