The relationship between social inequalities, child mental health and exposure to urban environmental stressors: an epidemiological analysis
Mental health disorders are one of the primary sources of ill health for young people, affecting up to 20% of children and adolescents worldwide. Moreover, stark social inequalities in children’s mental health exist, with those from more disadvantaged backgrounds being up to three times more likely to experience mental health problems than those more privileged.

Our understanding of the mechanisms through which childhood socio-economic circumstances (SEC) affect children’s mental health is incomplete. With three quarters of EU citizens now living in cities, attention is turning to the effects of environmental stressors such as ambient air pollution, traffic noise, and natural space on children’s development. In many cities, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds are disproportionately exposed to more harmful aspects of the urban environment. However, we do not know to what extent greater exposure or vulnerability to these stressors contributes to social inequalities in child mental health. 

URBINEX will undertake epidemiological analysis of data from over 200,000 children across 16 EU cities using the recently established EU Child Cohort Network. Cutting-edge methods in causal inference and life course epidemiology will be applied to decompose the relationship between SEC, exposure to environmental stressors and children’s mental health. The key objectives are to (i) use multi-level models to describe inequalities in mental health trajectories across childhood, (ii) use counterfactual mediation to test whether variation in exposure to urban environmental stressors mediates the relationship between SEC and mental health, and (iii) explore whether SEC and environmental stressors interact to confer additional vulnerability to mental health problems.

URBINEX has the potential to inform EU policies to bring structural changes to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals in reducing health inequalities, improving mental health and building sustainable cities.