Restorative effects of urban park soundscapes on children’s psychophysiological stress

Emerging studies have indicated the restorative effects of soundscapes on adults’ stress recovery. Little is known, though, about whether those effects could be generalized to children. Therefore, the present study tested the restorative effects of different soundscapes on children’s stress in a simulated urban park context. In the experiment, 53 children aged 8–12 first performed an oral arithmetic task to induce mental stress and then were exposed to a 3-min period soundscape. Physiological reactions, electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR), were monitored throughout the experiment. Psychological reactions to the soundscape were measured using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). The results showed that children’s physiological stress recovered significantly after all soundscapes exposure. However, sound types only showed a main effect on EDA recovery but not on HR recovery. Regarding psychological responses, ambient noise showed significantly less restorative effects than other acoustic stimuli on the ratings of pleasure and arousal, but not dominance. Furthermore, a significant difference was found between boys and girls on both physiological and psychological restoration. Those results indicated that urban park soundscapes do facilitate psychophysiological recovery on children to some extent, and the future soundscape design for children should take gender difference into consideration.