{"title":"Assessing the social atmosphere: A multilevel analysis of social connection and participation","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2024.105408","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Introduction</h3><p>Social atmospheres influence individuals' behaviors. Multilevel analysis evaluates atmospheres by capturing contextual effects beyond individual factors. While social participation benefits well-being and society, studies on the links between community factors, including social atmosphere, are still scarce. We explored the association between community social connections and social participation among adults in Japan.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>Cross-sectional data were collected from 3858 valid responses were obtained from 54 communities in the Zenkoji Monzen area of Nagano City. Social connections were measured by how well participants knew their neighbors, and social participation by involvement in three activity types. We used multilevel analysis with random intercept and fixed slopes to explore the association between community social connections and participation.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>This study found a high community-level prevalence of social connections was significantly associated with social participation in the community even after all covariates were adjusted for. Furthermore, regarding within-community association, social connections were found to be associated with social participation even after all covariates were adjusted for.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><p>A contextual association was found between community-level social connections and social participation. These findings suggest that multilevel analysis can help urban and architecture researchers explore how interactions between people and the built environment shape urban atmospheres.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026427512400622X/pdfft?md5=12ce4703e2636f20ee5d07101dbdddd5&pid=1-s2.0-S026427512400622X-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cities","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026427512400622X","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"URBAN STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction
Social atmospheres influence individuals' behaviors. Multilevel analysis evaluates atmospheres by capturing contextual effects beyond individual factors. While social participation benefits well-being and society, studies on the links between community factors, including social atmosphere, are still scarce. We explored the association between community social connections and social participation among adults in Japan.
Methods
Cross-sectional data were collected from 3858 valid responses were obtained from 54 communities in the Zenkoji Monzen area of Nagano City. Social connections were measured by how well participants knew their neighbors, and social participation by involvement in three activity types. We used multilevel analysis with random intercept and fixed slopes to explore the association between community social connections and participation.
Results
This study found a high community-level prevalence of social connections was significantly associated with social participation in the community even after all covariates were adjusted for. Furthermore, regarding within-community association, social connections were found to be associated with social participation even after all covariates were adjusted for.
Conclusion
A contextual association was found between community-level social connections and social participation. These findings suggest that multilevel analysis can help urban and architecture researchers explore how interactions between people and the built environment shape urban atmospheres.
期刊介绍:
Cities offers a comprehensive range of articles on all aspects of urban policy. It provides an international and interdisciplinary platform for the exchange of ideas and information between urban planners and policy makers from national and local government, non-government organizations, academia and consultancy. The primary aims of the journal are to analyse and assess past and present urban development and management as a reflection of effective, ineffective and non-existent planning policies; and the promotion of the implementation of appropriate urban policies in both the developed and the developing world.