At-risk inner-city girls who see nature through the windows of their homes may have a better chance for success than those girls whose views are less natural, say scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The June 2006 issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology published the study, which looked at the lives of 169 children, ages 7 to 12, living in public housing in downtown Chicago.

Girls who could see some greenery clearly benefited from the view.

… the greener the view that was available from their apartment window, the better they were able to concentrate, refrain from acting impulsively and delay gratification. The greener views translated into better self-discipline.

— Andrea Faber Taylor, researcher

Boys’ scores did not display the same relationship to views of nature from home, possibly because boys tend to spend more time playing away from home.