Abstract
Social cohesion involves the interpersonal dynamics and sense of connection among people. Increased social cohesion can be associated with various physical and psychological health benefits. The presence of urban green spaces can encourage positive social interactions that cultivate social cohesion in ways that enhance health and well-being. Urban green spaces have also been linked to positive health behaviors and outcomes including increased physical activity and social engagement. Understanding the relationship between social cohesion and urban green space is important for informing holistic approaches to health. In this article, we discuss how positive interactions in urban green space can catalyze social cohesion, social capital and critical health-promoting behaviors that may enhance psychological health and well-being. We also summarize the strengths and limitations of previous studies and suggest directions for future research.
Highlights
The social environment plays an important role in the context of place, health, and well-being.Social cohesion, a key construct used to characterize the social environment, has been defined in many ways, yet it often refers to interpersonal dynamics and/or collective efforts that may be used to assess quality of life [1,2,3]
As more people spend the majority of time indoors and experience a “nature-deficit” [8], limited exposure to urban green spaces may reduce opportunities for social engagement and the potential to develop social cohesion
Reviews of the relationship between nature and health suggest that social cohesion is positively influenced by the presence and quality of urban green spaces such as parks and forests [4,10,21,22]
Summary
The social environment plays an important role in the context of place, health, and well-being. Social cohesion can involve feelings of trust, belonging, acceptance [4], and connectedness [1,5] which often relate to positive social interactions. These favorable social constructs can encourage health benefits. Prior research has shown that positive social interactions are associated with enhanced health [6,9], and exposure to green spaces may enhance health and well-being [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17], few studies have directly explored the association between urban green spaces and social dimensions of health. Public Health 2019, 16, 452; doi:10.3390/ijerph16030452 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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