Characteristics of a Health Promoting Childhood Environment

The main aim is to provide increased understanding of the built environment determinants and their impact on activity participation and mental health in childhood.

This aim will be achieved thorugh several specific reserach objectives:

1) Assess the impact of the built environment determinants on health in childhood and identify existing knowledge gaps.

2) Identify, systematize and evaluate operational definitions of GIS-derived built environment measures and the geographical areas of exposure for studying built environment impact on health in childhood.

3) Examine associations between GIS-derived measures of the built environment, activity participation and mental health among 8-year olds in Norway.

4) Examine the impact of built environment determinants on mental health, and the potential mediator role of activity participation among 8-year olds in Norway.

Geographical Information Systems and data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, the built environment impact on activity participation and mental health among 8-year olds in Norway will be investigated.