Predicting home attachment through its psychological costs and benefits: Restoration, space, and social relationships

Abstract

The home represents the most psychologically, emotionally, and behaviorally important place in most people's lives. Although previous research has found that people are most strongly attached to their home, relative to other geographic scales (e.g., neighborhood), there is little research investigating the predictors of this emotional bond. This paper reports the results of a pair of studies that sought to identify the psychological factors most strongly associated with home attachment. In Study 1, participants (n = 285) provided written descriptions of the psychological benefits and costs they experience in their home. Content analysis revealed a number of common themes in these responses. Of these, home attachment was predicted positively by descriptions of the home's restorative properties and negatively by descriptions of social conflict and a lack of adequate space. In Study 2, a new sample of participants (n = 375) evaluated their home on Likert scale items modeled on the key themes of Study 1, which were then used to predict both home and neighborhood attachment. Here, restorative emotional experiences, positive social interactions, and an adequate amount of physical space were all uniquely predictive of home attachment. This pair of studies provide convergent evidence for the psychological features of the home most predictive of attachment.