title: Does heightened fear of crime lead to poorer mental health in new suburbs, or vice versa?
abstract: Fear of crime is implicated as a risk factor for poorer mental health, yet few studies have explored whether there is a causal relationship between fear of crime and health, or tested the direction of the relationship. Does, for example, heightened fear of crime lead to poorer mental health, or could poorer mental health exacerbate fear of crime? RESIDE participants in Perth, Australia, completed a questionnaire three years after moving to their neighbourhood (2007-2008, n = 1230), and again four years later (2011-2012, n = 531). The impact of fear of crime on psychological distress (Kessler-6) was examined in SAS using the Proc Mixed procedure (marginal repeated measures model with unrestricted variance pattern). Models controlled for demographics and time, and progressively adjusted for avoidance behaviours (i.e., walking, community participation, social cohesion). This approach was repeated with psychological distress as the independent variable and fear of crime as the outcome. For each increase in one standard deviation (SD) in fear of crime, psychological distress increased by 0.680 (p = 0.0001), however in the reversed models, for each one SD increase in psychological distress, fear of crime increased by 0.152 (p = 0.0001). To help explain these results, temporal order models examined whether baseline values predicted follow-up values. There was a significant association between psychological distress (at baseline) and fear of crime (at follow-up), but no association between fear of crime (at baseline) and psychological distress (at follow-up). The findings suggest a bi-directional relationship exists between fear of crime and mental health, however it appears that higher psychological distress over time leads to higher fear of crime, rather than the reverse. Furthermore, the pathway connecting fear of crime and mental health appears to be direct, rather than via constrained social and physical activities.
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Sport Science, Exercise & Health and School of Earth & Environment, The University of Western Australia (M707), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. Electronic address: sarah.foster@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Built Environment and Health, School of Sport Science, Exercise & Health and School of Earth & Environment, The University of Western Australia (M707), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. Electronic address: Paula.hooper@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hooper
authors.affiliation: School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. Electronic address: Matthew.Knuiman@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knuiman
authors.affiliation: McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit, Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia. Electronic address: b.giles-corti@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Billie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Giles-Corti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D003415:Crime / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004779:Environment Design / Q000592:standards; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000592:standards*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D066270:Social Capital; D018881:Suburban Health / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016138:Walking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Adults; Fear of crime; Longitudinal; Psychological distress; Social cohesion; Suburban; Walking