Abstract
With the acceleration of urbanization in developing countries, resources relating to medical care and the environment are becoming increasingly scarce, and the negative spillover effects brought about by scientific and technological progress have also significantly increased the pressure on urban residents. The psychological security of urban residents has recently undergone significant change. This paper introduces psychological security into the area of urban residents’ lives, defines the concept of urban residents’ psychological security, and presents the development and validation of the Urban Residents Psychological Security Scale (URPS). By considering psychological indicators, this paper supplements our knowledge on environmental indicators such as the risk perception of environmental pollution and climate change, and social indicators such as urban belongingness and the risk perception of technology which verifies the negative spillover effects of technological development. Based on a literature search and consideration of grounded theory (25 urban residents’ in-depth interview records), the psychological security of urban residents is divided into three dimensions: self-psychological security, social environmental security, and natural environmental security, consisting of 20 items. In this study, 802 questionnaires were completed by participants. We determined that the URPS scale has good reliability and validity using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, and conclude that the scale can be used as an effective measurement tool for urban residents’ psychological security. The development of this scale has important theoretical and practical significance in helping city managers better understand the residents’ demands and to monitor the implementation effects of policies.
Highlights
With the acceleration of economic development and urbanization in developing countries, profound changes have occurred in aspects such as the economic system, social structure, and values
On the basis of the arguments developed above, we summarized the concept of residents’ psychological security at the city level by combining them with the practical needs, explored and developed the Urban Residents’ Psychological Security Scale (URPS) scale to be applicable to the current environment, and verified the applicability of the threedimensional structure including psychological, social and environmental factors
Cong and An (2004) defined psychological security according to Maslow (1942) as the presentiment that may arise from dangers or risks in the physiology or the psychology of the individual, as well as the sense of powerfulness and powerlessness of the individual in dealing with dangers or risks, mainly related to the sense of certainty and controllability
Summary
With the acceleration of economic development and urbanization in developing countries, profound changes have occurred in aspects such as the economic system, social structure, and values. On the basis of the arguments developed above, we summarized the concept of residents’ psychological security at the city level by combining them with the practical needs, explored and developed the Urban Residents’ Psychological Security Scale (URPS) scale to be applicable to the current environment, and verified the applicability of the threedimensional structure including psychological, social and environmental factors. The URPS scale developed in this paper could help city managers understand the security status of urban residents, including psychological, social, and environmental aspects, and could help relevant departments formulate targeted intervention policies. In the future, this scale is expected to effectively enhance urban attractiveness, improve the urban integration of migrants and reduce the crime rate. The section “Limitations and Future Studies” is the limitations of this study and directions for future research
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