Impact of Physical Environmental Factors on Mental Wellbeing of Condominium Dwellers

Abstract

This paper attempts to reveal the outcomes of the empirical research investigating how the physical environments of the residential high-rises, known as condominiums, including the urban and community contexts, impact mental wellbeing of the dwellers since the emergence of condominiums in Bangkok’s real estate market has continued to proliferate. The principal objectives of the research are to determine the assumption that the high-density urban environment and unique structure of condominiums are the significant determinants affecting occupants’ mental status. Based on the quantitative research approach, the two-stage stratified sampling technique and a cross-sectional survey were performed to engage 1,206 participants from eighteen high-rise condominiums in Bangkok. The interdisciplinary research instruments applied in this study are a Physical-Environmental (PE) Assessment for evaluating the physical environment and surroundings of the condominiums and a Personal and Psychological (PP) Questionnaire for collecting respondents’ attributes and their psychological status quo: safety concerns, privacy satisfaction, and a sense of community at the time of their dwelling in condominiums. At the analytical stage, three inferential statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations, independent sample t-test, and one-way analysis of variance, were applied at the p-value ≤ 0.05. The results endorsed three urban factors: geographical zoning, land use zoning, and density of population as significant dominants of safety concerns, including the sense of community of condominiums’ dwellers, whereas community and architectural factors appeared to have distinctive effects on all three psychological variables.