Neighborhood community and quality of life

Abstract

Metropolitan area residents have increasingly had more opportunities to become personally involved in communities outside of their local neighborhoods. The challenge for community development practitioners is to demonstrate that community in the neighborhood does make a difference in a resident's life. Practitioners will be more successful in dealing with this issue if they can measure how specific aspects of neighborhood community affect an individual's general sense of well-being. A randomsample survey of residents in a metropolitan area (N = 634) examines the effects of two aspects of neighborhood community—social support and social similarity with one's neighbors—on how a person assesses his or her overall life. The results show that residents relate to two distinct types of community and that each has significant effects on how they view their lives in general. It is also found that the two types of neighborhood community have differing effects on black and white residents.