Showing papers by "Mary Haines published in 2003"

Qualitative responses of children to environmental noise.

Abstract: Results from recent quantitative research consistently demonstrate that children are a high risk group, vulnerable to the adverse effects of noise exposure, especially effects on cognitive performance, motivation and annoyance. The aims of the two qualitative studies reported in this paper are to explore children's a) perception of noise exposure; b) perceived risk of and attitudes towards noise pollution; c) coping strategies; and d) the annoyance response. The Millennium Conference Study involved focus group interviews with an international sample (n=36) unselected by exposure. The West London Schools Study involved individual interviews, conducted with a purposively selected sample (n=18) exposed to aircraft noise. The children in the focus groups reported being most affected by neighbours' noise and road traffic noise, whereas children exposed to aircraft noise were most affected by aircraft noise. As expected, the impact of noise pollution on everyday activities (e.g. schoolwork, homework and playing) was larger for the children exposed to high levels of aircraft noise compared with the low noise exposed children and focus group samples. The range of coping strategies that children employed to combat noise exposure in their lives was dependent upon the amount of control they had over the noise source. The emotional response of children describing the annoyance reaction to noise was consistent with adult reactions and it would seem that child noise annoyance is the same construct. Future research should employ qualitative methods to supplement quantitative investigations.

The effects of chronic aircraft noise exposure on children's cognition and health: 3 field studies.

Abstract: This article provides a review of three of the most important field studies to have examined the non-auditory effects of chronic aircraft noise exposure on children's cognition and health. The design of each of the studies is outlined, relevant methodological issues are highlighted and the findings from the studies are reported. Effects are reported on annoyance and quality of life, motivation and helplessness, stress responses as indexed by neuroendocrine tests and blood pressure measurements. In terms of cognitive performance, effects are reported on reading, attention and long-term and working memory.

Aircraft and road traffic noise and childrenʼs cognition and health: preliminary results on dose-response relationships from the ranch study

Abstract: Introduction Many studies have found associations between exposure to aircraft noise and children’s cognition in terms of reading comprehension, long-term memory and motivation (Cohen et al, 1980; Evans et al, 1995; Haines et al, 2001a,b; Haines et al, 2002; Hygge et al, 2002). Associations have also been found between aircraft noise exposure and psychophysiological indices of arousal such as levels of catecholamines and elevated blood pressure. With a few exceptions (Green et. al, 1982; Haines et. al, 2002), most studies have compared high and low noise exposed groups and have not examined dose-response relationships. Moreover, most studies in children have focussed on aircraft noise rather than traffic noise and have not examined the effects of the combination of aircraft and road traffic noise.