Perceived restorativeness in school spaces of high schools in xalapa city, méxico

The present study was carried out with high school students from Xalapa, Mexico. Its aim was to identify and compare the perceived restorativeness in their school environments according to the attention restoration theory. This work is based on a non-probabilistic sample of 706 students from seven high schools. All data were compiled by a sociodemographic survey and the Scale of the Restorative Potential of School Spaces (EPREE, for its the Spanish acronym). The results proved that green areas were the rest spaces with major restorative qualities and that the students' favorite rest places possessed more restorative qualities than other places. Males, older pupils and those whose mother (head of the family) had a lower educational level reported a more positive perception of the school spaces. The largest schools with green areas obtained a higher evaluation for their dimensions of fascination, being away and extent. The results confirmed the main propositions of the attention restoration theory.