Resumen
The effects of green cover on health have been extensively studied, pointing to important impacts on stress reduction and emotional outcomes. In addition, several studies have established a positive association between vegetation and children academic achievement. Nevertheless, none of these studies have attempted to measure the effect of vegetation over socioemotional and academic outcomes of school-age children concomitantly, which is key to help understanding how vegetation could mediate the effects on children academic performance. In this work, we use data from socioemotional surveys and standardized math and reading tests and satellite-derived vegetation cover data, to evaluate the effects of green cover over socioemotional indicators and academic achievement of primary, middle and high-school students for the city of Santiago. Our main results suggest that school green cover is associated with improvements on socioemotional outcomes, but no discernable effects on academic achievement are found. Moreover, these effects are concentrated on 8th and 10th grade students. Once we control for socioeconomic characteristics of each school and school district, only green cover within schools, but no in the surroundings, shows an impact over socioemotional outcomes. Overall, evergreen vegetation presents the largest impact, followed by grass. Vegetated areas dominated by deciduous trees seem to have no effect on socioemotional or academic outcomes.