A Study on Neighbourhood Attachment in Relation with Urban Related Identity

WOS: 000339540100005From the view point of environmental and community psychology perspectives, neighborhood is not only conceptualized as a constant spatial unit which has sharp, impermeable geographical borders. Within the psychological view, there are several areas of application currently receiving considerable attention in research and policy development. One is the domain of physical and social relations of the neighborhood with the city. The other is the research has been devoted to the understanding of meanings of the neighborhood which are attributed by the inhabitants. Moreover, another remarkable research domain is the inquiry of different life styles of inhabitants among different neighborhoods. The aim of the present study was to explore the neighborhood attachment in relation to urban-related identity. A field research was conducted in Alikahya neighborhood, Izmit, Turkey. The sample consisted of 161 participants (88 males, 73 females). The participants were selected by a random sampling method. All participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire including several questions related to socio-demographic variables; questions related to spatial experience; questions related to Satisfaction with Several Domains of Daily Life; Neighborhood Attachment Scale and Izmit Urban-Related Identity Scale. A principal component analysis yielded three factors that explained 52.1 % of the total variance. The findings of multiple regression analysis showed that satisfaction with living in the neighbourhood, the length of residence in the neighborhood, satisfaction with social life in the neighborhood, satisfaction with the street life, gender and the urban-related identity are the significant predictors of neighbourhood attachment. The findings were discussed on the basis of related literature and given cultural context