Perception of Community Environment, Satisfaction with Local Government, and Quality of Life: The Case of Gyeonggi, Korea

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the perception of community environment, local government, and quality of life (QoL). Previous studies on QoL have not comprehensively analyzed factors related to community environments or local governments. Consequently, this study examined the influence of the perception of community environment on QoL and simultaneously analyzed the mediating effect of satisfaction with local government. Furthermore, this study divided the community environment into facility, safety, medical, and social environments, which enables comparisons to be made between the influences of each factor. This study analyzed the “2020 Residents’ Quality of Life Survey in Gyeonggi, Korea”. The survey included all 31 districts in Gyeonggi Province, and the total number of samples was 16,000. Moreover, a multilevel stratified sampling method was applied on the basis of the 31 districts and the number of households. Thus, the survey properly reflects the regional characteristics of Gyeonggi Province. The analysis results were as follow: First, perception of community environment had a positive influence on QoL. In particular, the safety environment had the greatest effect on QoL. Therefore, it is necessary to focus more on improving the safety environment in the community. Second, satisfaction with local government had a mediating effect between facility environment, medical environment, social environment, and QoL. This means that satisfaction with local government is an important factor in increasing residents’ QoL. Presently, developing countries such as China, the Philippines, and Myanmar are still pursuing “rapid urbanization” while focusing only on quantitative development. However, this can generate various problems regarding social sustainability. Thus, this study provides important implications for these developing countries.