The Mediating Role of Place Attachment Dimensions in the Relationship Between Local Social Identity and Well-Being.

Fridanna Maricchiolo,Daniele Paolini,Ferdinando Fornara,Oriana Mosca

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.645648

Fridanna Maricchiolo, Daniele Paolini + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.645648

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Abstract

Well-functioning communities provide a range of material and psychological resources that enhance well-being. The degree to which individuals see themselves as part of the local social group, or local social identity, i.e., the social identification with the community of the place where people are living, may play an important role in enhancing happiness and well-being, as well as relationships of people with their own living environment, i.e., place attachment. We hypothesized that local social identity influences well-being via specific components of place attachment to the residential city/town, i.e., place identity, social relations, and lack of resources (which is the opposite of place dependence). We measured local social identity, individual well-being, interdependent happiness, and place attachment in a sample of N = 375 participants. We tested our hypotheses by conducting a series of mediation analyses with local social identity as an independent variable, individual well-being and interdependent happiness as dependent variables, and place attachment subfactors, i.e., place identity, social relations, and lack of resources, as mediators. Results showed that the relation between local social identity and both individual well-being and interdependent happiness was positively mediated by place identity and social relations, while the lack of resources emerged as a negative mediator only in the relation between local social identity and individual well-being (not for interdependent happiness). Practical implications and future developments are discussed.

Highlights

Well-functioning social communities provide a range of material and psychological resources that enhance well-being
The results of this study provide further evidence to the tripartite model of place attachment, consistent with other studies (Williams and Vaske, 2003; Scopelliti and Tiberio, FIGURE 2 | Place identity and social relations mediate the effect of local social identity on interdependent happiness (**p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05)
The study corroborates the positive relationship between place attachment, local social identity, and relational and individual well-being

Summary

Introduction

Well-functioning social communities provide a range of material and psychological resources that enhance well-being. Recent research in social psychology has shown that a variety of physical and mental health outcomes are derived from meaningful belonging in social groups within a varied range of contexts, and the local community is one of them (Bowe et al, 2020). A recent approach, the Social Identity Approach to well-being (Jetten et al, 2017; Haslam et al, 2018), stemming from SIT and Self-Categorization Theory (Turner et al, 1987), suggested that the social dimensions of the self (i.e., the multiple effects—cognitive, emotional, and behavioral— of the sense of “we-ness” derived from group membership) are fundamental in shaping our social world and that the pivotal psychological process connecting social relationships with health and well-being is meaningful social identification, i.e., a subjective sense of belonging (Sani et al, 2012). Social identity plays a crucial role at least on two levels of well-being: on the one hand, it is related to the individual well-being level (e.g., satisfaction with life; Diener et al, 1985), and on the other hand, it could impact the interdependent happiness level, i.e., the happiness based on social relationships, that is, on the relational nature of human beings (Hitokoto and Uchida, 2015; Krys et al, 2019)

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