Being stuck indoors, especially during the winter, is bad enough; it is even worse under crowded conditions. But, according to a study that looks at the effects of household crowding on people's well-being, architecture can make all the difference.

A study found that residents living in crowded homes with greater architectural depth -- the number of spaces one must pass through to get from one room in the house to another -- are less likely to avoid social interaction or suffer from nervousness, anxiety or depression than those living in crowded homes with less space between rooms.

The authors asked 212 college students who were living off campus a series of questions to determine how the design of their living conditions affected their well-being. The participants were asked the number of roommates they had, whether they were experiencing psychological distress and whether they were purposely avoiding their roommates. The authors also obtained 151 blueprints or floor plans (71 percent of the participants) of the participants' houses.

"We discovered that roommates who avoided others in their house did this to ward off the excessive and unwanted social demands," said Dr. Evans. "But by social withdrawing, the roommates unintentionally cut off their social support system and ended up feeling isolated and anxious."

Previous research of on-campus housing found similar results said Dr. Evans. "Residents living in suite dormitories tolerated crowding better than those living in double loaded corridor dormitories because suites offer more space between rooms -- architectural depth -- particularly for bedrooms which instead of facing directly onto a hallway, face onto an intervening lounge space."

Most of the research has focused on how the ratio of people to rooms affects people's distress levels. But what also seems to be true, said Dr. Evans, is that the architectural arrangement of those rooms can make a difference. "Our participants experienced less distress when they could physically distance themselves from their roommates. These findings confirm that people use social withdrawal to cope with crowding, which is an effective coping mechanism but creates other problems."

Future designs that include architectural depth, along with room brightness, subunit size, degree of private enclosure may help improve peoples' reactions to limited space and their responses to crowding. "Maintaining one's privacy can be achieved through a combination of psychological and environmental coping process," concluded the authors.

Gary W. Evans, Ph.D., Stephen J. Lepore, Ph.D., and Alex Schroeder, J.D. (1998). "The Role of Interior Design Elements in Human Responses to Crowding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 70, No. 1, pp 41-46.

5/21/98

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