Teenagers are often disregarded when urban planners work on their plans, projects, research, and policies. Urban planners usually work directly with fellow adults, not realizing that urban environments can impact teenage girls and boys differently from adults. This article is about how the effects of urban planning impact the mental health of teenage boys and girls and how urban planning can help improve their mental health.
Teenager girls and boys experience urban areas differently, as they have limited independent mobility, often overlooked in projects and policies. Moreover, a study created in 2021 called ‘How Do Urban Environments Affect Young People’s Mental Health? A Novel Conceptual Framework to Bridge Public Health, Planning, and Neuro Urbanism’ noted that no conceptual frameworks have given detailed information on urban environments’ impacts on the mental health of teenagers (and children). Also, past urban planning practices center around the idea that changing the physical realm can lead to ideal social and behavioral change yet fail to consider the growing influences (as well as roles) in digital technology and social media.
According to a guide, ‘How can the design of urban spaces contribute to the mental well-being of teenage girls?’ There is a concept (To BE in the city ) about the urban public spaces that allow girls to have fun, spend quality time with their friends, feeling safe and relaxed. How urban public spaces are designed impacts their mentalities, such as a design with safety and people in mind, the amount of privacy the girls can have, the public services they can use, and social interactions in diverse ways.
Some qualities of urban design can negatively affect girls and boys, which is true, based on personal memories. According to an empirical study, ‘Urban Design and Adolescent Mental Health: A Qualitative Examination of Adolescent Emotional Responses to Pedestrian- and Transit-oriented Design and Cognitive Architecture Concepts‘, interviews were conducted with adolescents about their experiences in their urban areas. The common theme is the absence of human scale, artificial noise, and low complexity.
1. Artificial mechanical noises, such as construction noises and moving cars, invoked feelings of annoyance in them (more so in boys) as they deemed it uncomfortable, overwhelming, loud and not lovely.
2. The lack of windows in concrete buildings makes them feel anxious, nervous and unwelcoming. Although based on personal experiences, even if a building’s exterior is entirely made up of windows, my teenage self feels a bit wary if it is tinted windows.
3. Another urban feature that has invoked negative emotions is worn-out, grey-dominated buildings, which make them feel suspicious, creeped out, and unwanted, which is accurate; as a formal teenager (now adult), I remember old, worn-out grey buildings make me very uneasy.
This also aligns with a study called ‘How Do Urban Environments Affect Young People’s Mental Health? A Novel Conceptual Framework to Bridge Public Health, Planning, and Neuro Urbanism’ contains information that, when paired with the information above, can make a clearer picture of how urban spaces impact teens’ mental health. They are accurate, and children, teenagers and adults (formally teenagers) can surely empathise with this, including myself.
1. Urban living is, understandably, associated with a higher risk of serious mental health issues.
2. Certain features, such as neighborhood amenities like public libraries and recreational centers, can improve social skills and confidence in children and teenagers (based on personal experience, these places act as hubs for children to play and for teenagers to hang out). On the other hand, the layout of the urban environment, such as the directness of pedestrian routes, may increase the risk of depressive symptoms in young people.
3. Car-dependent urban areas ( and suburbia based on personal memories) also contribute to negative emotions in young people.). Children and teenagers who are passengers in cars experience stress and worry often. High levels of traffic noise are linked to sleep problems, which, unsurprisingly, can further affect the mental health of teenagers. These factors reduce social cohesion and the restorative benefits of neighborhoods, naturally contributing to mental health decline in teenagers.
This information is valuable to urban planners, as they can try to avoid these urban features when planning, making policies and working on projects. Based on personal experience, these observations are very spot on; it was relieving to know that my time as a teenager feeling irritated during loud traffic was not unfounded. They can start by making information accessible to teenage girls and boys via digital technology as it is entrenched into society. To enforce this further, a publication called ‘Planning the Smart City With Young People: Teenagers’ Perceptions, Values and Visions of Smartness’ has shown that when asked how teenagers can engage with urban planning, increasing access to municipal websites, improving digital advertising to inform the public about upcoming developments, enhancing the use of social media by stakeholders, involving youth in digital simulations and games to communicate urban changes, and facilitating online workshops, events, and surveys are suggested.
Based on personal experiences as a high school student dealing with puberty, the information from above isn’t shocking. Public libraries, outdoor sports fields, and parks are popular places for people like me to relax and feel at peace. Moreover, even adults can understand how technologically connected the younger generations of society are, especially when news often comes from social media such as Instagram and X.
While urban cities can negatively impact the mental health of teenage girls and boys, there are also ways to have urban cities help them feel positive emotions. Information like this can be crucial to urban planners as they can reduce the negative aspects of urban planning while increasing the urban features that call forth positive emotions in teenagers.
In that same study, some identified urban features call upon positive emotions. One common theme is visual abundance, openness, and natural boundaries. These observations identified in the publication are accurate since these are the features I desired when I was a teenager.
1. Natural enclosures (such as green spaces like parks and blue spaces like lakes) help teenagers and children creatively, make them feel relaxed, and have a welcoming atmosphere. The creativity they experience stems from the versatile nature of these spaces, which teenagers can use for various activities and attract diverse groups of people. Natural enclosures also provide a sense of calm, focus, and immersion in nature.
2. Non-rectangular buildings, historically characterized buildings, outdoor dining areas, and historical landmarks contribute to a unique and distinctive design, attracting teenagers’ attention (such as the symbolism in the intricate Clock Tower in New Zealand). Icons within cities can also serve as guides for navigation to teenagers.
3. Urban features like safety measures, natural environment, public amenities, social interactions, and accessibility of outdoor furniture make the area feel comfortable and inviting, especially for girls, invoking positive emotions within them. They thought that they were considered in the spaces. Also, safety measures and the natural environment can make them feel relaxed.
– These types include sidewalk barriers, planter boxes, flower boxes, street trees, benches, public tables and public bathrooms.
4. Varied colors and designs with windows are also a cause of their happy experience. They can look through the windows to see inside the buildings and at objects/events that interest them, making the urban designs more inviting. The varied colors make the urban design look nice, cool and unique to them.
However, there might be more reasons why teenagers like natural enclosures. My personal theory is that natural enclosures give teenagers hope for a better future. Natural enclosures make teens feel positive emotions because they are more aware of the negative impacts of climate change and, thus, are happy that the adverse effects have not ravaged natural enclosures. Based on personal memories of being a teenager in Auckland Central. There is a history of student protests around New Zealand. As a high school student in 2019, climate change weighed heavily on me and many others. Thus, climate change protests organised by school students became more prominent in the news from 2019 onwards. The artificial noises, such as car horns, can remind teenagers (including myself at the time) that the future will likely be bleak.
Urban planners should plan more urban spaces with nature as its main element, as teenagers should feel some hope for a better future .
That study also aligns with the ‘How can the design of urban spaces contribute to the mental well-being of teenage girls?’ guide, as teenage girls told their experiences of playing with their friends in public spaces, the sea, parks, and iconic buildings in their local cities with fondness. Based on personal memories of playing on the swings near sea, this is spot on for me, and possible to all formal teenagers.
This information, again, does not surprise as these urban features and observations align with my time as a teenager. When I was in my central city, the buildings that got my attention most were not the skyscrapers; they were the historical buildings that had survived the trials of time. The intricate, detailed designs are lovely, so different and unique compared to modern, squared skyscrapers.
With this information, urban planners can plan to have dense trees around green spaces to give teenage girls and boys a sense of privacy. They can plan to have buildings (built with public services and furniture such as public bathrooms and tables) that are diverse in design and have windows. Planter boxes and hedges can be used as natural barriers and help the mental health of teenage girls and boys. They can design inclusive spaces with water fountains for adolescent girls to be safe, relaxed and socialize. Urban planners can include bike lanes and bridges that can lead teenagers to natural enclosures where they can feel at peace.
According to a publication, ‘How Do Urban Environments Affect Young People’s Mental Health? A Novel Conceptual Framework to Bridge Public Health, Planning, and Neuro Urbanism’ has information that aligns with the study and enforces it.
1. Nature is an essential factor in improving young people’s health.
2. Spaces with dense tree cover can reduce bad health and air pollution and improve mental health and overall well-being. Greenery can reduce symptoms of depression and behavioral issues.
3. Urban planning can impact teenagers’ mental health as several social factors of health are intertwined with it, especially when involving land (as it affects health via design, density, diversity, and destination accessibility)
– Accessible green spaces can increase social development.
– Improved street network accessibility reduces psychological distress.
– Substantial greenery can migrate noise levels.
– Mixed land use can increase accessibility to services and facilities (encouraging healthy exercise and health in the process) compared to single land use zoning.
Also, urban planners have shown that they are looking into neuro-urbanism. It is a multidisciplinary field (much like urban planning) that studies how urban environments affect the mind and brings together neuroscience, public health, urban planning, and other areas to create healthier environments.
These observations are very on point, as some of the information reflects on personal memories of being a teenage girl. The smell of petrol soured my moody teenage self, while the lush green parks were my escape from the annoyances of daily life.
Overall, from the information above, nature, beautiful designs, accessibility and openness (physically and information-wise) help the mental health of teenage girls (and boys) by making them feel safe, relaxed, curious and socialize with others, including myself.
In conclusion, urban planners can take part in helping teenage girls and boys by including them in their plans and using urban designs and policies that can help them feel safe and relaxed and have good fun while roaming in cities. They can avoid the urban features that can be a detriment to the mental health of teenage girls and boys, such as car-centric environments with no way of noise reduction and grey windowless buildings with little to no facilities. They can also include greenery, diverse designs, mixed-use urban areas and non-car-centric transportation routes in their projects to help reduce negative emotions in teenagers. Since teenage girls and boys live in urban cities should be included in urban planning processes.
Author:
Xiuwei Zhang
Urban Planner for Tourist Destination intern
University of Auckland, Auckland, NZ
Mentor:
Marija Lazarevic, MSc
CEO at MariXperience ltd.