Pathways to Mental Health: Exploring the Relationships Among Neighborhood Hostility, Crime, Built Environment, and Perceived Safety.

Neighborhood crime-related stressors and the built environment are important determinants of mental health, yet research on the pathways through which they affect individuals remains limited. This study draws on structural equation modeling and high-quality measures to test the pathways linking a novel measure of neighborhood-level hostility, crime, and built environment features to individuals' perceived safety and mental health. The results suggest that neighborhood crime and perceived safety are directly associated with men's, but not women's, mental health. Additionally, neighborhood hostility, tree canopy, and walkability are indirectly linked to men's mental health via their associations with crime and perceived safety. Findings show that neighborhood hostility and walkability were directly associated with perceived safety for both women and men, while tree canopy was indirectly linked to perceived safety through its relationship with neighborhood hostility. According to these results, equity-oriented built environment interventions have the potential to reduce neighborhood-level hostility and crime, and enhance population mental health.