The Moran-led team links at-work greenspace to positive health outcomes, even for prison employees. The researchers determined that “prisons with a higher proportion of natural vegetation within their perimeter have lower levels of staff sickness, absence. . . . Econometric estimations presented in the paper confirm lower levels of staff sick-leave in prisons with more greenspace. This relationship persists when we control for [statistically remove the effects of] prison size, security level, age, level of crowding, levels of self-harm and violence among prisoners, and assaults against staff. The findings are significant in demonstrating the benefits of nature contact in workplaces in general.”
Dominique Moran, Phil Jones, Jacob Jordaan, and Amy Porter. “Nature Contact in the Carceral Workplace: Greenspace and Staff Sickness Absence in Prisons in England and Wales.” Environment and Behavior, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165211014618
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.