Children's annoyance reactions to aircraft and road traffic noise

• Since annoyance reactions of children to environmental noise have rarely been investigated, no source specific exposure-response relations are available. The aim of this paper is to investigate children’s reactions to aircraft and road traffic noise and to derive exposure-response relations. To this end, children’s annoyance reactions to aircraft and road traffic noise in both the home and the school setting were investigated using the data gathered in a cross-sectional multicenter study, carried out among 2844 children age 9–11 years attending 89 primary schools around three European airports. An exposure-response relation was demonstrated between exposure to aircraft noise at school LAeq, 7–23 h and severe annoyance in children: after adjustment for confounders, the percentage severely annoyed children was predicted to increase from about 5.1% at 50 dB to about 12.1% at 60 dB. The findings were consistent across the three samples. Aircraft noise at home LAeq,7–23 h demonstrated a similar relation with severe annoyance. Children attending schools with higher road traffic noise LAeq,7–23 h were more annoyed. Although children were less annoyed at levels above 55 dB, the shapes of the exposure-response relations found among children were comparable to those found in their parents.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

annoyance

aircraft noise

road traffic noise

children

RANCH

Psychology

Psykologi

Psychology

psykologi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)