Neighborhood Characteristics and Older Adults’ Well-Being: The Roles of Sense of Community and Personal Resilience

Jinfeng Zhang, Jianxin Zhang, Mingjie Zhou () and Nancy Xiaonan Yu ()
Additional contact information
Jinfeng Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jianxin Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Mingjie Zhou: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Nancy Xiaonan Yu: City University of Hong Kong

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2018, vol. 137, issue 3, No 6, 949-963

Abstract: Abstract The ecological model stresses the importance of the neighborhood context to aging successfully. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the associations between neighborhood characteristics (public space, senior population density, and senior service) and the well-being of older adults, with sense of community as a potential mediator and personal resilience as a potential moderator. The sample consisted of 628 individuals (aged 60–97 years) recruited from 32 neighborhoods in Beijing, China. They completed measures of resilience, sense of community, and well-being. Neighborhood characteristics, including per capita public space, senior population density, and senior services, were obtained from neighborhood committees. We used hierarchical linear modeling to analyze the individual data from participants’ self-reported measures and objective data regarding neighborhoods. The results showed that: (a) public space, senior population density, and senior services were positively associated with the well-being of older adults; (b) sense of community mediated the above associations; (c) the associations between neighborhood characteristics—such as per capita public space, senior services, and well-being—were strengthened by personal resilience. This study highlighted the importance of neighborhoods to older adult’s well-being, including objective characteristics and a subjective sense of community. Besides personal strength, enhancing neighborhood resources is recommended to promote the well-being of elderly people.

Keywords: Neighborhood; Well-being; Sense of community; Resilience; Older adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-017-1626-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:soinre:v:137:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-017-1626-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-017-1626-0

Access Statistics for this article

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement is currently edited by Filomena Maggino

More articles in Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().