Environment/Climate Change
The effects of daily air pollution on affect in adolescents: An ecological momentary assessment study Sarah Rocha* Sarah Rocha Rocha Rocha Rocha Stanford University
Air pollution is a global environmental threat and growing evidence suggests that it is particularly harmful to adolescents’ mental health. To date, however, we know little about how air pollution affects daily emotional functioning. In this study using ecological momentary assessment, we assessed daily levels of air quality across a 14-day period in 158 adolescents (59% female, MAge=16.1 years) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Adolescents reported on their levels of positive and negative affect, or emotion, and their experiences of stress three times/day, resulting in 4,113 observations. We examined associations of daily levels of four major air pollutants (carbon monoxide [CO], nitrogen dioxide [NO2], ozone [O3], and particulate matter < 2.5μm [PM2.5]) with adolescents’ same- and next-day ratings of their affect levels, the lability (i.e., variability) of their affect, and their affective reactivity to stressors. We found that on days with higher levels of NO2 and O3, adolescents reported lower levels of positive affect (NO2: b=-0.10, p=.028; O3: b=-0.10, p=.005). Positive affect was more labile on days with higher O3 (b=0.84, p<.001), CO (b=3.23, p<.001), and PM2.5 levels (b=0.42, p<.001), with effects extending into the following day (O3: b=0.53, p=.006; CO: b=2.40, p=.003; PM2.5: b=0.19, p=.027). Negative affect was also more labile on days with higher levels of CO and PM2.5 (CO: b=1.20, p=.022; PM2.5: b=0.22, p<.001). Finally, adolescents reported stronger negative affect after experiencing stress on days with higher levels of CO (b=0.69, p=.007) and PM2.5 (b=0.11, p<.001) and on the following day (CO: b=0.64, p=.01; PM2.5: b=0.10, p=.001). These findings indicate that multiple air pollutants are associated with poorer daily emotional functioning in adolescents, including damped positive affect and greater affective lability and reactivity to stress. Future research should elucidate underlying mechanistic pathways and long-term implications for mental health.
