The Residential Psychosocial Environment and Mental Wellbeing in Deprived Areas

Ade Kearns, Elise Whitley, Lyndal Bond and Carol Tannahill

International Journal of Housing Policy, 2012, vol. 12, issue 4, 413-438

Abstract: The importance of psychosocial environments to health outcomes – physical health, mental health and wellbeing, and health behaviours – has been increasingly recognised in recent years, but more so in relation to the workplace than other settings. This paper seeks to extend this field of inquiry both conceptually and empirically. It argues that housing and neighbourhoods can equally be viewed as comprising an important residential psychosocial environment operating via processes of appearance, perceived relative position, control, status and empowerment. The paper goes on to demonstrate this approach by looking at the relationships between housing and neighbourhood psychosocial risk factors and psychosocial benefits and mental wellbeing for residents in relatively deprived areas. A range of psychosocial factors are positively associated with mental wellbeing, with the most important being: the attainment of feelings of residential and personal progress; having a sense of control at home; and the aesthetic qualities of the dwelling and neighbourhood environment. Empowerment in relation to both one's landlord and local area changes were both also important, although slightly less strongly associated with mental wellbeing. The perceived relative position of the dwelling and neighbourhood had the least strong associations with mental wellbeing once aspects of quality were taken into account.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14616718.2012.711985 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:intjhp:v:12:y:2012:i:4:p:413-438

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/REUJ20

DOI: 10.1080/14616718.2012.711985

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Housing Policy is currently edited by Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Gerard van Bortel and Richard Ronald

More articles in International Journal of Housing Policy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().