1. Introduction
Contemporary college students face multiple pressures, such as role transition, academic tasks, interpersonal relationships, and employment [
1,
2,
3,
4]. These stressors often contribute to emotional distress, increasing their vulnerability to mental health disorders. This may affect students’ physical health and learning efficiency, potentially triggering social isolation and undesirable behaviors [
5]. Anxiety, characterized by intrusive and discomforting feelings related to anticipated threats [
6], manifests as excessive worry about both tangible matters and social interactions [
7]. A significant percentage of students worldwide experience anxiety disorders. In China, the number of students enrolled in higher educational institutions exceeded 41 million in 2020 [
8]. Nearly half of these students report anxiety-related issues, with 8–13% experiencing mild anxiety, 20% struggling with moderate symptoms, and 4–6% enduring severe anxiety [
9].
The built environment significantly shapes individuals’ psychological well-being [
10,
11], particularly in relation to anxiety and sadness [
12,
13]. Recent research has extensively explored the relationship between physical surroundings and mental health [
14], examining the effects of work environments [
15], green spaces [
16,
17], and indoor air quality [
18] on mental well-being. Studies have revealed that poorly identified environments are associated with increased anxiety [
19], and adverse physical conditions such as overcrowding, noise, extreme temperatures, and inadequate lighting can contribute to anxiety [
20,
21], often stemming from external stressors perceived as beyond one’s control or uncertain [
22,
23]. Furthermore, social and built environment factors are important for physical and mental health in both urban and rural areas [
2], with building layout and environment shaping an individual’s mental health by affecting their relationship with nature, their sense of personal control, and indoor air quality [
20]. Studies suggest that within educational environments, students experience improved mental well-being when exposed to natural features like blue and green spaces [
24]. Additionally, schools with supportive environments foster lower levels of student anxiety [
19]. Adolescents prefer lower indoor temperatures but are more sensitive than adults to daily light levels, noise, and PM2.5 concentrations [
25].
Ventilation plays a crucial role in classrooms, particularly during transitional seasons and summer, to manage thermal comfort and enhance air quality. Increasing indoor air velocity not only boosts students’ thermal comfort but also improves their perception of air quality and classroom humidity [
26]. Teaching buildings have a higher risk of indoor air pollution than other buildings due to high population density [
27]. Several studies have highlighted the correlation between insufficient ventilation, air pollution, and detrimental effects on mental well-being [
20,
28,
29,
30]. Specifically, an increase in fine particulate matter (PM
2.5) has led to a decline in mental health [
31], and poor ventilation has been linked to the development of anxiety symptoms [
30,
32], which are considered to be an important trigger for depression and psychiatric disorders [
33]. Inadequate ventilation rates can elevate indoor carbon dioxide levels, posing serious health risks [
34]. Indoor air pollutants not only endanger physical health, leading to respiratory issues [
35] and cognitive decline [
36], but may also indirectly impact mental well-being by discouraging outdoor activities [
37].
Extensive research has been conducted on the impact of thermal environments on student health, with a particular focus on the relationship between temperature, thermal comfort, health, and academic performance [
38,
39,
40]. Thermal comfort significantly contributes to students’ satisfaction with their classroom environment and is a crucial factor in both their physical and mental health. It also influences individual motivation, attention, and mood [
41], highlighting its importance in educational settings. Studies have shown that ambient temperature and mental health outcomes are significantly correlated [
42]. The relationship between temperature, air quality, and health is V-shaped [
2]. Low temperatures are associated with decreased negative mental health, while high temperatures tend to increase negative mental health [
43]. High temperatures have been correlated with various mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and aggression [
44]. They also diminish positive mood, amplify negative mood, and contribute to fatigue [
45]. Additionally, high temperatures may exacerbate existing mental disorders, increase the risk of suicide and psychiatric hospitalization [
46], and lead to a decrease in healthy activities, thereby affecting psychological well-being [
47].
A wealth of research highlights the negative impact of noise on mental health [
48,
49]. There are direct links between noise-induced irritability and higher rates of anxiety and depression [
48]. Noise from neighbors, as well as urban and traffic sounds, is significantly correlated with deteriorated mental health outcomes [
50]. Excessive noise levels can impair students’ hearing and comprehension abilities [
51]. Conversely, a conducive acoustic environment is essential for helping students clearly understand their teachers, which can improve their academic performance [
52].
Research findings suggest that optimal lighting conditions can effectively alleviate stress, anxiety, and mood disturbances. Conversely, inadequate lighting increases the likelihood of depression by a significant 60% [
21]. Both daylighting and artificial lighting are associated with reduced fatigue, relief from sadness, and a decrease in depressive symptoms, along with various other health benefits [
53]. Optimal lighting environments are vital for visual comfort, impacting not only health and well-being but also satisfaction, learning, and visual performance [
54]. Additionally, the non-visual impacts of lighting on students, such as visual efficacy and mood [
55], play a significant role in shaping their learning status and outcomes [
56]. These findings underscore the importance of proper lighting in educational settings.
Numerous studies have highlighted the positive effects of nature exposure on mental well-being [
57,
58]. Studies have shown that exposure to nature enhances physical and mental health [
59] and cognitive abilities [
60] and that green space accessibility has a significant positive effect on the mental health of older adults [
61]. Conversely, limited exposure to nature can lead to adverse mental well-being outcomes [
20]. Plants have been found to have a positive impact on psychological healing [
62], and individuals living in areas with limited green spaces are more susceptible to mental well-being issues when unwell [
63]. The presence of trees on college campuses is linked to reduced anxiety among students [
64] and having natural views from windows is directly associated with improved mental well-being [
65].
College students face a multitude of challenges, including academic pressures, social dynamics, and financial constraints [
66]. These challenges can make them more vulnerable to adverse behaviors and negatively affect their physical and mental well-being [
67]. Academic buildings, as primary spaces for learning and living, play a crucial role in shaping students’ mental health. The design and condition of these environments can either mitigate or exacerbate mental well-being issues. However, most of the research exploring the relationship between mental well-being and the built environment has centered around either extensive urban landscapes or compact residential settings [
2]. There needs to be more investigation into how the physical environments impact the mental well-being of students within academic facilities on a smaller scale. Previous research on the impact of school building environments on students’ mental health [
3,
4] has primarily examined them at a larger campus scale, neither adequately examining the unique physical attributes of these environments nor integrating the findings with the specifics of the educational setting. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a thorough examination of how each physical environment element within school buildings affects students’ anxiety.
The physical environment of teaching buildings encompasses three main dimensions: indoor spaces, semi-outdoor areas, and courtyards. This article aims to evaluate students’ perceptual assessments of different aspects of the physical environment within the school building. Additionally, it seeks to analyze the impact of these perceptual evaluations on students’ “anxiety or not” (AON). It conducts cause profiling and proposes optimization strategies. This study hypothesizes that students with low perceptual ratings of various physical environment factors in the academic building are more likely to experience anxiety. To mitigate confounding factors, a multifactorial holistic model was developed. The study’s findings will guide decision-making in building design with a focus on promoting health. These findings will also serve as a reference for designing and renovating school buildings, aiming to alleviate students’ anxiety and enhance their mental well-being by improving the physical environment.
The paper is structured as follows:
Section 2 outlines the study design, statistical methodology, and the physical environment factors under investigation.
Section 3 presents the statistical findings.
Section 4 offers an analysis and discussion of these results, along with a discussion of the study’s limitations. Lastly,
Section 5 summarizes the main findings and conclusions.
4. Discussion
4.1. Physical Environment of Indoor Space in Teaching Building
The statistical analysis revealed that within the physical environment of academic building classrooms, students’ perceptions of ventilation, lighting, and noise conditions significantly influenced both their anxiety levels and the OAPE. Improvements in these factors were associated with higher OAPE scores and a decreased likelihood of experiencing anxiety. Among the various subfactors of the classroom’s physical environment, perceptual ratings of ventilation and lighting in corridors, lighting in south-facing classrooms, and thermal comfort during the summer, spring, and fall seasons significantly and positively affected student anxiety levels. However, perceived ratings of lighting in north-facing classrooms, along with ventilation and thermal comfort in both north- and south-facing classrooms and thermal comfort in winter classrooms, did not significantly impact the development of student anxiety.
4.1.1. Classroom Lighting
The classrooms surveyed were all designed with inner corridor layouts, as shown in
Figure 1c. Students rated their perception of classroom lighting as moderate, with a mean score of 3.266 and a standard deviation of 0.880. Poor ratings of light in interior corridors and south-facing classrooms were associated with higher levels of student anxiety. The large windows providing one-sided lighting caused poor lighting conditions due to glare and uneven light distribution. Additionally, classrooms facing south experienced direct sunlight on the desks, adversely affecting the learning environment, particularly for students seated near the windows (
Figure 1e). The design of the inner corridors contributed to inadequate lighting in both the central classroom area and the corridors themselves. To enhance lighting conditions at window seats conducive to learning, students frequently closed the curtains. Observational studies revealed that in south-facing classrooms, 85% of the curtains were drawn, compared to just 8% in north-facing classrooms, as illustrated in
Figure 6. Students attempted to mitigate lighting issues by closing the curtains and using artificial light, but this did not improve their overall satisfaction with classroom lighting and was associated with higher anxiety levels. This phenomenon may be explained by the fact that, while areas without direct sunlight do not typically cause visual discomfort [
54], human vision functions more effectively under natural daylight than artificial lighting [
53]. Moreover, increased exposure to natural light is known to have antidepressant effects [
69], suggesting that insufficient natural light in classrooms can increase the risk of anxiety. Additionally, the inner corridors were dimly lit due to the curtains being drawn over the outer windows and the corridor layout, coupled with the avoidance of artificial lighting during the day to conserve energy. This resulted in insufficient lighting (
Figure 1f), which may significantly increase anxiety among students.
4.1.2. Classroom Noise
This study discovered that a lower student’s perceived rating of the noise environment in classrooms is associated with an increased likelihood of student anxiety. This finding aligns with previous research [
3,
70], which concluded that acoustic environments have a greater impact on anxiety relief than visual environments [
70] and that noise is detrimental to mental health [
48,
49] and linked to both depression and anxiety [
71]. The affected classrooms are typically situated near sources of noise, such as urban transport routes or internal school paths and sports areas. However, the classrooms in this study were located inside the school, away from traffic and playgrounds, with the primary noise sources being internal corridors and neighboring classrooms. Field studies indicated that 79% to 97% of the doors and windows in these corridors were kept closed (
Figure 1f and
Figure 6). While closing doors and windows in the corridors can mitigate noise and sound disturbances, this practice can also lead to inadequate ventilation and poor thermal comfort within these spaces. Conversely, achieving optimal ventilation and thermal comfort in classrooms with an inner corridor layout requires opening both the external and corridor doors and windows to enable effective convection ventilation. However, this often results in increased noise disturbance. Thus, balancing the various aspects of physical comfort in these environments remains a challenge, contributing to heightened student anxiety.
4.1.3. Classroom Ventilation
This study revealed that students’ perceived ratings of the ventilation in both classrooms and inner corridors significantly impacted their anxiety levels negatively, aligning with previous research that has shown poor ventilation contributes to air pollution, reducing indoor air quality and adversely affecting mental health [
20], as well as being linked to negative mental states like depression and anxiety [
28,
29,
30]. Students’ perceptions of classroom ventilation were rated as fair (M = 3.009, SD = 0.942), influenced by the building’s internal corridor layout and the ineffective ventilation in both the classrooms and corridors. Field observations indicated that the conditions at the window seats—affected by light and drafts—were unsuitable for learning, leading students to close the windows and the curtains. Consequently, over 90% of the classroom’s external windows and 85% of the curtains in south-facing classrooms were closed. Moreover, to minimize noise from the corridors and adjacent classrooms, most doors and windows in the inner corridors were also shut (
Figure 6), hindering the development of convective natural ventilation and resulting in poor classroom ventilation. This lack of effective ventilation not only compromised air quality and thermal comfort but also created conditions where issues related to ventilation, lighting, noise, and thermal comfort could not be simultaneously resolved, thereby increasing the likelihood of student anxiety.
4.1.4. Classroom Thermal Comfort
This study revealed that poor ratings of classroom thermal comfort during the summer, spring, and fall significantly correlated with increased student anxiety. Hangzhou’s climate features hot summers and cold winters, with prolonged summer and winter periods but brief spring and fall. The internal corridor layout of the classrooms and the year-round closure of doors and windows contributed to suboptimal thermal comfort during these transitional seasons. However, thermal comfort improved during winter due to the enclosed environment and higher occupancy levels in classrooms. Students rated their perception of classroom thermal comfort poorly, with an average score of 2.657 (SD = 0.961). Specifically, 82% of students expressed dissatisfaction with summer thermal conditions, while only 7% and 6% reported poor comfort in spring and fall, respectively. The primary concern is that elevated temperatures can adversely affect mental health, potentially leading to depression and anxiety [
44]. In contrast, 48% of students rated winter classroom thermal comfort as poor, primarily due to cold conditions; however, studies indicate that while higher temperatures may worsen mental health outcomes, cooler temperatures may mitigate them [
43]. Thus, poor winter thermal ratings did not seem to influence anxiety levels among students. The study also found that classroom orientation, whether north or south, did not affect perceptions of thermal comfort, which were solely dependent on seasonal variations. Classrooms remained sealed throughout the year, with curtains and windows consistently closed, minimizing the impact of external weather conditions and leading to less temperature variation between classrooms regardless of orientation. Indoor ventilation plays a crucial role in determining thermal comfort [
41], emphasizing the importance of proper natural ventilation in classrooms to enhance comfort levels [
72,
73]. Increasing air velocity can allow for a higher maximum comfortable temperature by approximately 2 °C [
72]. Addressing the ongoing closure of classroom doors and windows, especially during transitional seasons, is essential for improving thermal comfort and, potentially, the mental health of students.
4.1.5. The Relevance and Improved Control of the Physical Environment of the Classroom
The perceived ratings of the four indoor physical environment factors were significantly correlated with each other, with the strongest correlation observed between perceived ratings of ventilation and thermal comfort (r = 0.444, p < 0.01). This was followed by correlations between classroom ventilation and lighting (r = 0.420, p < 0.01) and between thermal comfort and noise conditions (r = 0.359, p < 0.01). In school buildings with interior corridor layouts, these issues are interconnected. For instance, inadequate classroom ventilation and thermal comfort can often be traced back to the design featuring inner corridors and issues with the classroom lighting environment. To improve the light environment and heat comfort around window areas, students often close exterior windows and curtains. Similarly, closing doors and windows along the interior corridors mitigates noise from these areas and adjacent classrooms. However, these solutions introduce new challenges: classrooms become poorly ventilated, corridors poorly lit, thermal comfort is reduced during spring and summer, and there is an increased reliance on artificial lighting. Effectively managing these issues simultaneously proves challenging and sometimes unattainable, leading to situations that exacerbate student anxiety. This inability to control or adequately improve their physical environment is a fundamental cause of anxiety among students.
Mental well-being is influenced by an individual’s control over their body and environment [
22,
74,
75,
76]. Consequently, having control over one’s built environment can directly impact mental well-being [
20]. Therefore, the increased likelihood of anxiety due to students’ poor perceptions of their physical environments largely depends on their ability to control or effectively mitigate these unsatisfactory conditions without compromising other aspects of the physical environment. For example, closing windows and curtains to enhance comfort in areas with windows often leads to inadequate ventilation and lighting in inner corridors. Additionally, this can cause discomfort due to poor thermal conditions in the warmer months of spring and summer. Not all physical environment enhancements can be implemented simultaneously, creating further challenges.
To enhance students’ mental well-being and reduce their anxiety, it is crucial to address the inadequate ventilation and lighting issues caused by the school building’s inner corridor layout and the suboptimal conditions near classroom windows. For side window lighting, improving classroom illumination can be achieved through the implementation of shading systems and innovative ceiling designs [
77,
78]. One solution is to install balconies outside classrooms and add shading on the southern side. This strategy not only shields from direct sunlight but also moderates the impact of the outdoor climate on the thermal comfort near the windows, while creating a semi-outdoor resting area. Such changes encourage students to regularly open windows and curtains, promoting a well-lit environment with effective natural ventilation. Additionally, the design of buildings with inner corridors often hampers ventilation when doors are closed and contributes to dimly lit corridors. Addressing these issues during the architectural design phase, such as incorporating light wells, can enhance natural ventilation and thermal comfort, especially during seasons when air conditioning is unnecessary. This approach also improves corridor lighting, alleviates student anxiety, and helps reduce energy use.
4.2. The Physical Environment of the Courtyard Area of the School Building
This study shows that students’ perceived evaluations of courtyard thermal comfort significantly impact their anxiety levels. The climate in Hangzhou is characterized by hot summers and cold winters, making outdoor spaces too hot in the summer and quite cold in the winter. Students’ average rating of courtyard thermal comfort is moderate, with an average score of 3.464 and a standard deviation of 0.809. Although the winter and summer breaks avoid the most extreme weather months, many students stay on campus to study during these periods. Observations indicate that in the first half of the year (spring and summer), March is relatively cold, April and May have moderate temperatures, and June to August is hot; in the second half of the year (autumn and winter), September is hot, October and November are moderate, and December to February is cold. As a result, students can only comfortably use the courtyard for less than four months a year. Additionally, the activity and rest spaces inside the U-shaped courtyard need more summer shading and winter windbreak facilities, leading to low outdoor thermal comfort for students.
The study indicates that the lower the courtyard thermal comfort rating, the higher the likelihood of student anxiety. That is partly because students using the courtyard in summer experience anxiety due to overheating, consistent with existing research showing that summer heat waves cause physical and emotional distress leading to anxiety [
79] and that heat exposure negatively impacts mental health, especially in terms of depression and anxiety [
44]. However, the outdoor courtyard space, intended as a place for students to relax, engage in activities, and connect with nature, is hindered by seasonal changes. For most of the year, the courtyard lacks comfortable microclimate conditions, preventing students from fully utilizing the space and increasing the risk of mental health issues. This is particularly true for students who stay on campus during winter and summer breaks, as they often face higher expectations and study pressure, leading to increased anxiety levels. Therefore, students dissatisfied with courtyard thermal comfort and giving it lower ratings are more likely to experience anxiety. Given the significant impact of courtyard thermal comfort on student anxiety, courtyard design must prioritize the creation of a favorable microclimate. This can be achieved by adjusting the courtyard’s height-to-width ratio and increasing the amount of greenery. Adequate shading is also a key factor in improving thermal comfort and should be considered in future design solutions [
24].
4.3. The Physical Environment of Semi-Outdoor Areas of the School Building
This study found that perceptual ratings of the semi-outdoor areas of the academic building significantly and positively influenced the OAPE. Among the subfactors of these areas, poor ratings of the number of semi-outdoor spaces and the view of the landscape from these areas significantly increased the likelihood of student anxiety. This aligns with prior research [
3], which indicates that viewing nature in semi-outdoor areas can reduce stress through psychological and physiological means, thus benefiting mental well-being [
80]. These areas also offer multi-sensory experiences, such as hearing birds and smelling flowers [
81], which enhance mental well-being through sensory engagement [
82], as the combination of green scenes and natural sounds can significantly reduce anxiety [
70]. For students in classrooms, semi-outdoor areas provide a natural contact point, protection from weather elements, and easy access, all of which are crucial for mitigating academic stress and anxiety. Adequate semi-outdoor areas help prevent overcrowding in indoor spaces, improving mood, as overcrowding is closely linked to depression and low spirits [
83]. Additionally, semi-outdoor areas facilitate social interactions [
84], which are essential for positive mental well-being; conversely, insufficient socialization can harm students’ mental well-being [
85].
Through investigation and field experience, it was found that the thermal comfort of semi-outdoor corridor spaces is better than that of indoor spaces in spring, summer, and autumn but worse in winter. Since the corridor space in the middle of Building 2 is not enclosed to the north (
Figure 1g), it is often subjected to cold north winds in winter, further reducing the winter thermal comfort of the semi-outdoor corridor space. Statistical analysis shows that 34% of students rated the winter thermal comfort of the semi-outdoor space poorly. The statistical results of binary regression equation B indicate that, at a significance level of 0.1, the winter thermal comfort of semi-outdoor spaces (
p = 0.075) significantly affects the occurrence of student anxiety. Although, according to the environmental control theory [
20], students can improve their dissatisfaction with winter thermal comfort by wearing more clothes or choosing not to use the semi-outdoor corridor space in winter, these semi-outdoor spaces are the closest areas to the classrooms and are convenient for students to relax during breaks. For students dissatisfied with winter thermal comfort, if they do not use the semi-outdoor corridor spaces, it is difficult for them to find better places to relax and connect with nature during short breaks, leading to unrelieved study pressure and an increased likelihood of anxiety.
4.4. Impact of Physical Environment Perception on Special Groups
Due to the central corridor layout, a lack of shading on the south side, and poor lighting in the window areas of the classrooms, the teaching buildings in this study have suboptimal ventilation, lighting, noise, and thermal environments. These factors significantly increase the probability of student anxiety and may have an even greater impact on students with disabilities, special needs, mental health issues, or learning disabilities. Poor ventilation might worsen asthma symptoms and anxiety and depression symptoms in students. Insufficient lighting can cause depression, and visually impaired pupils have trouble seeing the chalkboard and course materials. Noise interference makes it harder for hearing-impaired students to understand the teacher and stresses out anxious students. High temperatures might worsen anxiety in anxious students. Students with depression may feel oppressed by poor landscape views in semi-outdoor environments, worsening their mental health. Thus, enhancing classroom ventilation, lighting, noise, and thermal conditions, notably courtyard thermal comfort and semi-outdoor area landscape views, can greatly improve campus inclusivity and accessibility. These improvements include increasing natural ventilation in classrooms, improving lighting to avoid strong light and shadows, using noise-reducing materials to minimize noise interference, providing shading and cooling equipment to ensure comfortable classroom temperatures, using vegetation and water features to regulate courtyard temperature and humidity, and designing accessible facilities to make semi-outdoor spaces easy to use for all students. These enhancements improve learning and living for all students, but they are especially crucial for students with disabilities, special needs, and mental health difficulties, helping them adjust to campus life and improve their mental health and academic performance.
4.5. Limitations
This study presents certain limitations. It was conducted exclusively in the #2 teaching building at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, focusing solely on how this specific building’s physical environment influences student anxiety. Future studies should broaden the investigation to include additional college buildings. Moreover, data collection relied on questionnaires, which may be susceptible to extraneous influences during completion, potentially causing discrepancies between the reported and actual psychological states of students. Due to the limited length of the article and the small amount of data collected, this study primarily focuses on the direct impact of independent variables on the occurrence of anxiety. Moreover, the relationship between physical environment factors studied in this article and anxiety may vary according to students’ gender, socioeconomic status, or other demographic characteristics. Therefore, in future work, the sample size will be increased to explore in-depth the potential interaction effects between various physical environment factors and their impact on student anxiety, as well as the differences in conclusions based on different student demographic characteristics. Additionally, other environmental factors related to student mental health also deserve further investigation, including landscape design, vegetation types, architectural aesthetics and colors, and environmental features. The accessibility of buildings can also be considered a potential physical environment factor that may influence student mental health. These elements could be considered as variable factors in future studies to enhance the understanding of their impacts on mental well-being, alongside an increase in the scale of questionnaire distribution. Moreover, it is beneficial to explore how students’ perceptual evaluations of the physical environment and its impact on mental health change over time and across different social contexts. Such research could extend the findings of this study and offer insights for health-oriented campus design in the future.
5. Conclusions
This research focuses on the influence of academic building environments on student anxiety. It utilizes survey data to study students’ perceptual evaluations of various aspects of the physical environment in university academic buildings and examines how these evaluations affect the likelihood of student anxiety. To investigate the independent effects of various physical environment factors, the research employs both multiple linear regression models and binary logistic regression models, analyzing their influence on the dependent variable. Our findings suggest that students’ perceptual ratings of four major physical environment factors significantly reduce the likelihood of student anxiety. These factors include classroom ventilation (p < 0.001, Exp(B) = 0.330), classroom lighting (p < 0.001, Exp(B) = 0.444), classroom noise conditions (p < 0.001, Exp(B) = 0.415), and courtyard thermal comfort (p < 0.01, Exp(B) = 0.504). Additionally, perceptual ratings of eight specific subfactors significantly increase the likelihood of student anxiety. These subfactors are ventilation of inner corridors (p < 0.001, Exp(B) = 3.070), lighting in south-facing classrooms (p < 0.001, Exp(B) = 3.851), lighting in inner corridors (p < 0.001, Exp(B) = 2.955), classroom thermal comfort in summer (p < 0.01, Exp(B) = 3.966), classroom thermal comfort in spring (p < 0.05, Exp(B) = 3.815), classroom thermal comfort in fall (p < 0.05, Exp(B) = 3.530), the number of semi-outdoor areas (p < 0.001, Exp(B) = 2.587), and landscape views from semi-outdoor areas (p < 0.01, Exp(B) = 2.779).
Moreover, this study found that students’ overall assessment of the physical environment is significantly influenced by their ratings of classroom ventilation, classroom lighting, classroom thermal comfort, courtyard ventilation, and semi-outdoor areas. The results indicate that enhancing classroom features such as ventilation, lighting, and thermal and noise conditions, along with improving courtyard thermal comfort, the number of semi-outdoor spaces, and the views from these areas, can lower the likelihood of student anxiety. Additionally, refining classroom ventilation, lighting, thermal comfort, views of the courtyard, and the layout of semi-outdoor areas is crucial for boosting student contentment with the physical aspects of academic buildings. Optimal physical environments are associated with lower levels of student anxiety. Addressing unsuitable lighting near classroom windows, along with ventilation, lighting, and noise issues arising from the building’s internal corridor design, is essential given the integral role of physical environment appropriateness in educational settings. The findings from this study offer valuable insights for designing and remodeling school facilities, emphasizing the link between students’ mental well-being and the physical environment. The objective is to enhance students’ contentment with their physical surroundings, bolster mental well-being, and reduce anxiety.