From disorder to distress: Investigating neighborhood change and mental health with Streetview and longitudinal survey data

Abstract

Neighborhood physical disorder, a prominent negative aspect of the residential environment, is expected to adversely affect mental health. However, the limited use of longitudinal designs with objective measures of physical disorder hinders the establishment of causal effects and the generalizability of findings, particularly in rapidly changing urban contexts. This study integrates Streetview data with the Shanghai Urban Neighborhood Survey from 2017 to 2019 to examine changes in physical disorder and their association with psychological distress in Shanghai. Analysis of Streetview data reveals a decline in physical disorder over the study period. Employing fixed-effects models and generalized propensity score matching, we find that this decline is associated with reduced psychological distress. The association is significant among residents with lower socioeconomic status (SES), while it is less pronounced among high-SES residents. These findings contribute to the understanding of the effect of physical disorder by providing more robust evidence from a rapidly transforming urban context. They also shed light on the effectiveness of residential environment improvements in Shanghai and other cities experiencing rapid neighborhood change.