Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T05:17:44.135Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rural place attachment and urban community integration of Chinese older adults in rural-to-urban relocation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2020

Jinfeng Zhang Open the ORCID record for Jinfeng Zhang [Opens in a new window]  and
Bin Wang
Jinfeng Zhang*
Affiliation:
School of Public Affairs, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
Bin Wang
Affiliation:
Law School of Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

With China's rapid urbanisation, many residents, especially older adults, are suffering from psychological problems induced by rural-to-urban relocation. This study examines the association between older adults’ rural place attachment and their depression after relocation, as well as the protective roles of neighbourhood social cohesion and sense of community in the relocation place. Chinese older adults (N = 224) who relocated from rural villages to urban communities completed a survey for this study. The results showed that older adults with stronger rural place attachment experienced more depressive symptoms and a lesser sense of community in the relocation place. In addition, the association between rural place attachment and depression was weakened by neighbourhood social cohesion. That is, compared with older adults perceiving low neighbourhood social cohesion, the positive association between rural place attachment and depression was weaker for older adults perceiving high neighbourhood social cohesion. Furthermore, neighbourhood social cohesion's protective role depended on sense of community. In particular, neighbourhood social cohesion buffered the association between rural place attachment and depression for older adults with a strong sense of community but not for older adults with a weak sense of community. These results have implications for developing resources within neighbourhoods and communities to promote relocation adjustment for older adults.

Keywords

place attachmentneighbourhood social cohesionsense of communitydepressionrelocationolder adults
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 42 , Issue 6 , June 2022 , pp. 1299 - 1317
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boey, KW (1999) Cross-validation of a short form of the CES-D in Chinese elderly. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 14, 608–617.3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bray, D (2006) Building community: new strategies of governance in urban China. Economy and Society 35, 530–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bromell, L and Cagney, KA (2014) Companionship in the neighborhood context: older adults’ living arrangements and perceptions of social cohesion. Research on Aging 36, 228–243.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cao, Y, Hwang, SS and Xi, J (2012) Project-induced displacement, secondary stressors, and health. Social Science and Medicine 74, 1130–1138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cernea, M (1997) The risks and reconstruction model for resettling displaced populations. World Development 25, 1569–1587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chao, SF (2016) Outdoor activities and depressive symptoms in displaced older adults following natural disaster: community cohesion as mediator and moderator. Aging and Mental Health 20, 940–947.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chao, SF (2017) Social support, coping strategies and their correlations with older adults’ relocation adjustments after natural disaster. Geriatrics & Gerontology International 17, 1006–1014.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheng, ST and Chan, ACM (2005) The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale in older Chinese: thresholds for long and short form. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 20, 465–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choi, YJ and Matz-Costa, C (2018) Perceived neighborhood safety, social cohesion, and psychological health of older adults. The Gerontologist 58, 196–206.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cramm, JM, van Dijk, HM and Nieboer, AP (2013) The importance of neighborhood social cohesion and social capital for the well-being of older adults in the community. The Gerontologist 53, 142–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawson, JF and Richter, AW (2006) Probing three-way interactions in moderated multiple regression: development and application of a slope difference test. Journal of Applied Psychology 91, 917–926.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fone, D, Dunstan, F, Lloyd, K, Williams, G, Watkins, J and Palmer, S (2007) Does social cohesion modify the association between area income deprivation and mental health? A multilevel analysis. International Journal of Epidemiology 36, 338–345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilleard, C, Hyde, M and Higgs, P (2007) The impact of age, place, aging in place, and attachment to place on the well-being of the over 50s in England. Research on Aging 29, 590–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilroy, R (2012) Physical threats to older people's social worlds: findings from a pilot study in Wuhan, China. Environment and Planning A 44, 458–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, AF (2013) Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-based Approach. New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hidalgo, MC and Hernández, B (2001) Place attachment: conceptual and empirical questions. Journal of Environmental Psychology 21, 273–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Y and Wong, H (2014) Impacts of sense of community and satisfaction with governmental recovery on psychological status of the Wenchuan earthquake survivors. Social Indicators Research 117, 421–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Y, Tan, NT and Liu, J (2016) Support, sense of community, and psychological status in the survivors of the Yaan earthquake. Journal of Community Psychology 44, 919–936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, X, Dijst, M and Van Weesep, J (2017) Social networks of rural–urban migrants after residential relocation: evidence from Yangzhou, a medium-sized Chinese city. Housing Studies 32, 816–840.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jiang, YP, Waley, P and Gonzalez, S (2018) ‘Nice apartments, no jobs’: how former villagers experienced displacement and resettlement in the western suburbs of Shanghai. Urban Studies 55, 3202–3217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamo, Y, Henderson, TL and Roberto, KA (2011) Displaced older adults’ reactions to and coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Journal of Family Issues 32, 1346–1370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kearns, A and Mason, P (2013) Defining and measuring displacement: is relocation from restructured neighbourhoods always unwelcome and disruptive? Housing Studies 28, 177–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuwert, P, Brahler, E, Glaesmer, H, Freyberger, HJ and Decker, O (2009) Impact of forced displacement during World War II on the present-day mental health of the elderly: a population-based study. International Psychogeriatrics 21, 748–753.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Le, F, Tracy, M, Norris, FH and Galea, S (2013) Displacement, county social cohesion, and depression after a large-scale traumatic event. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 48, 1729–1741.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewicka, M (2011) Place attachment: how far have we come in the last 40 years? Journal of Environmental Psychology 31, 207–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Y, Sun, F, He, X and Chan, KS (2011) Sense of community and depressive symptoms among older earthquake survivors following the 2008 earthquake in Chengdu China. Journal of Community Psychology 39, 776–785.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, X, van Ham, M and Kleinhans, R (2019) Understanding the experiences of relocatees during forced relocation in Chinese urban restructuring. Housing Theory and Society 36, 338–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mak, WWS, Cheung, RYM and Law, LSC (2009) Sense of community in Hong Kong: relations with community-level characteristics and residents’ well-being. American Journal of Community Psychology 44, 80–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maleku, A, Kim, YK and Lee, G (2019) Social cohesion and immigrant health: does language-efficacy matter? International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care 15, 17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMillan, DW and Chavis, DM (1986) Sense of community: a definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology 14, 6–23.3.0.CO;2-I>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearlin, LI (1989) The sociological study of stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 30, 241–256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peterson, NA, Speer, PW and McMillan, DW (2008) Validation of a brief sense of community scale: confirmation of the principal theory of sense of community. Journal of Community Psychology 36, 61–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riina, EM, Martin, A, Gardner, M and Brooks-Gunn, J (2013) Context matters: links between neighborhood discrimination, neighborhood cohesion and African American adolescents’ adjustment. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 42, 136–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robinette, JW, Charles, ST and Gruenewald, TL (2018) Neighborhood cohesion, neighborhood disorder, and cardiometabolic risk. Social Science and Medicine 198, 70–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarason, SB (1974) The Psychological Sense of Community: Prospects for a Community Psychology. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Scannell, L and Gifford, R (2010) Defining place attachment: a tripartite organizing framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology 30, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scannell, L and Gifford, R (2016) Place attachment enhances psychological need satisfaction. Environment and Behavior 49, 359–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scannell, L and Gifford, R (2017) The experienced psychological benefits of place attachment. Journal of Environmental Psychology 51, 256–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, NS, Bass, J, Sumbadze, N, Rebok, G, Perrin, P, Paichadze, N and Robinson, WC (2018) Identifying mental health problems and idioms of distress among older adult internally displaced persons in Georgia. Social Science and Medicine 211, 39–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, ZF, Li, D, Cheng, HJ and Luo, T (2020) Multifaceted influences of urbanization on sense of place in the rural–urban fringes of China: growing, dissolving, and transitioning. Journal of Urban Planning and Development 146, 04019026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiles, JL, Allen, RE, Palmer, AJ, Hayman, KJ, Keeling, S and Kerse, N (2009) Older people and their social spaces: a study of well-being and attachment to place in Aotearoa New Zealand. Social Science and Medicine 68, 664–671.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiles, JL, Rolleston, A, Pillai, A, Broad, J, Teh, R, Gott, M and Kerse, N (2017) Attachment to place in advanced age: a study of the LiLACS NZ cohort. Social Science and Medicine 185, 27–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wirth, T, Grêt-Regamey, A, Moser, C and Stauffacher, M (2016) Exploring the influence of perceived urban change on residents’ place attachment. Journal of Environmental Psychology 46, 67–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, Z, Penning, MJ, Zeng, W, Li, S and Chappell, NL (2016) Relocation and social support among older adults in rural China. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 71B, 1108–1119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yan, S, Hong, XC, Yu, HQ, Yang, Z, Liu, SY, Quan, W, Xu, JK, Zhu, LY, Cheng, WL, Xiao, H, Kitzman-Ulrich, H and DeHaven, MJ (2016) Prevalence of diabetes and health-related quality of life among rural-to-urban Nong Zhuan Fei migrants in an urban area of Northern China, 2013. Public Health Reports 131, 167–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yetim, N and Yetim, Ü (2012) Sense of community and individual well-being: a research on fulfillment of needs and social capital in the Turkish community. Social Indicators Research 115, 93–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yip, NM, Leung, TTF and Huang, R (2013) Impact of community on personal well-being in urban China. Journal of Social Service Research 39, 675–689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, R, Cheung, O, Leung, J, Tong, C, Lau, K, Cheung, J and Woo, J (2019) Is neighbourhood social cohesion associated with subjective well-being for older Chinese people? The neighbourhood social cohesion study. BMJ Open 9, e023332.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, J (2019) How community participation promotes the relocation adjustment of older women: a moderated mediation analysis. Social Indicators Research 143, 637–655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, J, Yu, NX, Zhang, J and Zhou, M (2017) Sense of community and life satisfaction in Chinese older adults: moderating roles of personal and partner resilience. Journal of Community Psychology 45, 577–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhu, YS, Breitung, W and Li, SM (2012) The changing meaning of neighbourhood attachment in Chinese commodity housing estates: evidence from Guangzhou. Urban Studies 49, 2439–2457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar