The effect of plants on reducing stress in children; (Case study: Shahinshahr elementary school students)

Subject Areas : Architecture and urbanism

hosein hagh shenas, ¹ , vahid heidarnattaj ² , fereshteh baezzat ³ , alireza naghinejad ⁴

1 - Master of architecture, Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Mazandaran, Iran.
2 - Associate professor, Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Mazandaran, Iran. *(Correspondence Author)
3 - Associate professor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Iran.
4 - Professor, Faculty of Science, University of Mazandaran, Iran.

Received: 2020-09-27 Accepted : 2020-12-08 Published : 2024-07-22

Keywords: Plants, classes, elementary schools, stress reduction.,

Abstract :

Background and Objective: Children often spend time in educational spaces with high levels of stress, which hinders their creative flourishing and development of their talents. Therefore, in order to protect their mental health, the school environment should be considered in accordance with their conditions. Many indicators (light, ventilation, furniture, color, green space, etc.) are effective in stress level, the most important of which is the green space. The present study investigates the effect of plants in the interior environment of classroom on reducing student’s stress

Material and Methodology: this descriptive-survey research tries to collect data by creating a quasi-experimental green space in the classrooms. The statistical population in the pre-test were all students (178 people) of the Shohaday-e-Modafe-e- Haram elementary school of Shahin Shahr in fourth, fifth and sixth grade and both sexes.74 students with higher than average stress level were selected purposely for experiment to collect information, the CSSS Children's Stress Symptoms Questionnaire was used with pre-test and post-test groups, of the 2-point Likert type "Yes" and "No". SPSS software version 21.0 was used for Data analysis and ANOVA one-way analysis of variance was implemented to infer the significance of research steps.  

Findings: using plants inside the classrooms are effective on reducing stress level with a probability level of 95% which is statistically resulted as significant (P<0.05) in girls’ fourth grade (0.00), boys’ fourth grade (0.04), girls’ fifth grade (0.00), boys’ fifth grade (0.00), and girls’ sixth grade (0.001).

Discussion and Conclusion: the averages that are resulted through questionnaires demonstrate, in a descriptive and inferential manner, the significance between different stages of the research which proves that using plants in the classroom in elementary schools is effective in reducing student's stress level.

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