The Residential Context of Health

Terry Hartig is an Associate Professor of Psychology with the Institute for Housing and Urban Research and the Department of Psychology of Uppsala University. He completed graduate training in social ecology at the University of California at Irvine and postdoctoral training in social epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley. His research focuses on health values of nature experience, restorative environments, health in relation to residence, and the social ecology of stress and restoration.

Psychological and social processes that connect health with housing come into focus in this collection of original papers. Eminent European and North American scholars address issues such as the link between housing design and mental health; housing as a form of "health capital"; health costs and benefits of owning vs. renting; the role of housing in the relationship between poverty and health; "doubling up" as a form of coping by poor households; stress experienced in providing health care to another adult in the home; and the ways that residence determines the distribution of stressful demands and opportunities for restoration in everyday life. Throughout, the authors indicate the relevance, for health, of residents' activities in relation to their housing, as well as the social ecological factors that set the boundaries for those activities. The authors also provide conceptual and analytical tools useful for further enhancing our understanding of the relations among housing, residence, and health.

Part I: Introduction. Part II: Expanding the Scope of Outcomes and Processes: Mental Health in Relation to Housing. Part III: Owning versus Renting - Health and Housing Tenure. Part IV: Residence, Poverty, and Health. Part V: Residential Activities, Stress, and Health. Part VI: Concluding Comments. Part VII: 2002 SPSSI Presidential Award Address