Residential Self-Selection In The Greenness-Wellbeing Connection: A Family Composition Perspective

Residential self-selection is commonly viewed as a force confounding the association between greenness exposures and subjective wellbeing. This paper looks at this fundamental viewpoint by exploring the role of residential self-selection concerning natural environment from the perspective of family composition. Using a combination of individual survey and street view greenness data from Beijing, we find that individuals are less satisfied when they live in neighborhoods with limited exposure to greenness. Additional findings provide the evidence on the contextualized nature of greenness-wellbeing is dependent upon not just residential self-selection and its realization but also family composition characteristics such as the presence of school-age children.