Data for: Could nature help children rise out of poverty? Green space and future earnings from a cohort in ten U.S. cities

Data accompanying paper submitted to Environmental Research titled Could nature help children rise out of poverty? Green space and future earnings from a cohort in ten U.S. cities. The abstract follows: BACKGROUND: Growing up in poverty is associated with poor health, and the American Dream of upward mobility is becoming an illusion for many low-income children. But nearby green space can support academic achievement, creativity, and emotional regulation, and these traits might help low-income children rise out of poverty. OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between recent incomes of children born between 1978 and 1982 in the 10 largest U.S. cities and density of green space they were exposed to during childhood. METHODS: We calculate park proximity, park acreage, new park development, and greenness for 1980-1990 using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from Landsat imagery and Trust for Public Land geospatial files. We obtain the 2014 income for children born between 1978 and 1982 into families in poverty from The Opportunity Atlas cohort, aggregated at the tract level. RESULTS: Conditional autoregressive (CAR) models of tracts in the ten largest U.S. cities (n = 5,849) show statistically significant positive weak associations between income rank and above-average levels of greenness but not between income rank and park measures, adjusting for individual and neighborhood confounders and spatial autocorrelation. Tracts with lower average levels of precipitation (city-level), lower disadvantage, higher levels of population density, or higher annual temperatures do not show beneficial effects of green space. CONCLUSIONS: Greenness may be weakly associated with children rising out of poverty in wetter, cooler, less-dense, more advantaged census tracts of 10 U.S. cities.本数据集配套提交至《Environmental Research》（《环境研究》）的学术论文，题为《自然能否助力儿童摆脱贫困？美国十城队列研究中的绿地与未来收入》。以下为该论文的摘要： 【研究背景】成长于贫困环境与健康状况不佳显著相关，美国梦所标榜的向上流动正沦为众多低收入儿童难以企及的幻梦。然而周边绿地能够支撑学业表现、创造力与情绪调控能力的发展，而这些特质或可帮助低收入儿童摆脱贫困桎梏。 【研究目标】本研究旨在探究1978至1982年间出生于美国十大城市的儿童，其成年后近期收入与童年时期所接触的绿地密度之间的关联。 【研究方法】本研究借助陆地卫星（Landsat）影像的归一化差异植被指数（Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI）以及公共土地信托基金会（Trust for Public Land）的地理空间数据文件，计算了1980至1990年间的公园可达性、公园占地面积、新增公园开发量以及植被绿度。我们从机会图谱（Opportunity Atlas）队列数据库中，获取了1978至1982年出生于贫困家庭的儿童2014年的收入数据，并以普查街区（tract）为单位进行聚合分析。 【研究结果】针对美国十大城市的5849个普查街区构建的条件自回归（Conditional Autoregressive, CAR）模型显示，在控制个体与社区混杂因素以及空间自相关效应后，儿童收入排名与高于平均水平的植被绿度之间存在统计学意义显著的微弱正向关联，但收入排名与各类公园相关指标之间并未呈现此类关联。在城市层面降水水平偏低、社会经济劣势程度较轻、人口密度较高或年平均气温较高的普查街区中，未观察到绿地带来的有益效应。 【研究结论】在美国十大城市的湿润、凉爽、低密度且社会经济条件更优的普查街区中，植被绿度或与儿童摆脱贫困存在微弱关联。