Wellbeing Space and Society最新文献

This paper focuses on urban micro public space and examines the intricate indoor environment through users’ experiences. Although studies have revealed the role of public spaces in facilitating social encounters and relationships, further empirical work and place-specific analyses are required for an in-depth understanding of how everyday places work in the context of wellbeing. Grounding in assemblage thinking, this study employs participant observation and 18 semi-structured interviews to explore the socio-material setting and enabling properties of the former church-turned neighborhood gathering place, People's House Absalon (Folkehuset Absalon) in Copenhagen. Though privately owned, rich public life takes place there every day, which shapes positive human experiences. The unique combination of price strategy, opening hours, and interior material setting appeals to wider generations and allows people to conduct everyday tasks in attendance with others. Simple co-presence in the shared context is considered the most valuable experience by the daytime users. It is associated with gentle feel-good moments, from which various levels of restorative benefits are attained at the user's own pace. However, personal preferences, geographical distance, and free time-related conditions signify a complex pathway to be “in” the place to exploit its wellbeing value. Therefore, further empirical work is encouraged to see beyond neighborhood enabling places as a single entity isolated from people's routinized practices.

The aim of this study was to validate the Temporal Satisfaction with Life Scale (TSWLS; Pavot et al., 1998) in the Czech language, including the examination of its psychometric properties and measurement invariance by gender and age. The TSWLS is a 15-item instrument for measuring life satisfaction (LS) from a temporal perspective allowing the comparison of the level of life satisfaction in the past, present, and future. The analysis was based on a representative research sample (N = 427) of Czech people older than 18 years. The results confirmed the psychometric quality of the original three-factor structure of the TSWLS as very good in terms of reliability and validity; however, according to the confirmatory factor analysis, the model fit was poor. Some items were identified as problematic and were excluded, resulting in a 12-item version of the TSWLS (without the past1, present1, and future1 items) with correlated residuals between similar items from each subscale. This version provides an acceptable model fit and is recommended for use in future research. The findings from the measurement invariance indicated that the TSWLS allows meaningful comparison across gender and age, since scalar invariance was achieved.

Little is known about longer-term changes to community participation since the COVID-19 pandemic onset and potential implications for health and wellbeing in later life. This multi-method investigation analyzes national data from the COVID-19 Coping Study. Statistical analyses of survey data (n = 1,630; mean age 67.9 years; data collected April/May 2022) identified that adults residing in the US still tended to stay inside their homes more often since the pandemic onset. Overall, participants decreased their engagement with amenities such as eateries, gyms, and arts and cultural sites. Reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 57; mean age 70.7 years; data collected May-July 2021) identified altered community participation with perceived long-term impacts on physical, mental, and social health and wellbeing. The results provide novel insights about the critical nature of ‘third places’ to support later life, and policy implications to strengthen community environments. Investment in outdoor, well-ventilated, and distanced third places may support wellbeing.

Nature-based interventions represent promising candidates for supporting mothers and infants in the postnatal period, which is a vulnerable time for mothers to experience mental health difficulties. Possible mechanisms by which nature-based interventions may support postnatal health include those of a biological/physiological nature (for example natural light optimising circadian rhythm, improving microbiome health, providing opportunities for physical activity), relational/social pathways, and cognitive and creative pathways. A conceptual understanding of these possible mechanisms will aid the design and evaluation of postnatal nature-based interventions.

Accessible and high quality shared outdoor open spaces, both built and natural, can be particularly beneficial for health and wellbeing. The design and quality of shared outdoor spaces are often modifiable and the health and wellbeing-promoting potential of such spaces can, therefore, be enhanced. However, optimal modification of shared outdoor spaces requires a greater understanding of perceptions and experiences. Citizen Science projects can be particularly valuable for capturing experiences of wellbeing in different environments and shared outdoor spaces, although suitable validated scales are lacking. This paper aims to develop and conduct psychometric testing on the Perceived Wellbeing in Shared Outdoor Spaces (PWOSS) Scale. The study involves three key phases of scale development and evaluation: (i) identifying suitable domains and generating initial items for the PWOSS Scale; (ii) pre-testing the PWOSS Scale and conducting item reduction analysis and factor extraction to refine the scale items using a sample of potential users from Edinburgh, Scotland (n = 137); and (iii) evaluating the PWOSS Scale by testing for dimensionality, reliability and validity. The final PWOSS Scale consisted of nine-items. The factor analysis indicated a two-factor solution (positive and negative wellbeing. The results of the three phases suggest the PWOSS Scale is a valid and reliable scale that can aid our understanding of the link between wellbeing and shared outdoor spaces and environments. The PWOSS Scale offers significant value to Citizen Science projects and to urban planning and public health practitioners interested in modifying and adapting shared outdoor spaces to increase wellbeing.

Challenging economic and social conditions undermine community wellbeing across the UK. Using desk research and case studies, we examined how one business sector, UK supermarkets, support local communities through community-orientated support actions (COSAs) as part of Corporate Social Responsibility commitments. A theory of change was developed drawing on community wellbeing theory and community asset-based practices, providing a framework for data collection and development of detailed hypotheses for particular COSAs and resources invested. Findings present the results of analysis according to context-mechanism-outcome configurations representing scenarios for the mobilisation of: community colleague's time; donations of money/goods; and store space. Contextual enablers and barriers are also identified, with a view to supporting practice within and across business sectors as well as possible collaborations with state and voluntary sectors to enhance the contribution of COSAs to local communities in the future. Five areas of more ‘transformative’ actions which would require more concerted and collaborative efforts were identified: collaboration in the wider system; mobilising physical store assets; actions on household food security; economic interventions and empowering the local community; alongside possible system levers for doing so.

Climate change related extreme events present significant threats against the sustainability of forest-based livelihoods. Adaptive capacities and coping strategies of forest residents in Malawi towards climate change and extreme weather events were analyzed. Purposive sampling was used to select key informants while random sampling was employed to sample household heads or older member of the household (n = 422) involved in the household survey. Questionnaire administration, interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect the primary data. Cross tabulation of frequencies, Pearson Chi-square tests, and Binary logistic regression tests were used for the data analysis. Results showed that forest residents have always employed different adaptation and coping strategies during different climate extreme events over the years. Winter cropping (Dimba) around streams and wells, scored 66 % in Mchinji whilst the shifting of crop planting periods to coincide with rainy seasons topped the list in Mangochi (55 %) against droughts and erratic rainfall, respectively. Household satisfaction with water supply facilities and communication services dictated the respondents’ choice of the coping strategies employed. Furthermore, household human capital enhanced the adaptive capacity of forest residents. In conclusion, institutional services, social networks and human capital resources are important in devising climate coping and adaptation strategies hence recommending for more sustainable and transformative adaptation and coping strategies that can withstand projected climate change and weather-related events.

The COVID-19 pandemic's effect on established Chinese ethnic enclaves, which faced socio-economic disruptions as well as anti-Asian sentiment, is unknown. We compared the pandemic's effect on social capital among residents and non-residents of Chinese ethnic enclaves in Philadelphia. Despite declines in group participation and citizenship activity (joining with others or speaking with local officials to address a neighborhood problem), the pandemic increased support received from other individuals and cognitive social capital (e.g., neighborhood trust and sense of belonging), with more pronounced changes in enclaves. Our findings provide evidence of both greater vulnerability and resilience in terms of social capital among Chinese immigrants during the pandemic. Understanding the pandemic's effects on social capital in different neighborhood contexts can underscore communities’ strengths, and ways to improve resilience to future challenges.

We draw on the stress process model to investigate how local gender dynamics related to patriarchal violence and socioeconomic resources shape the link between violent victimization and youth mental health. Using multilevel longitudinal data on 1,632 youth we tested whether respondents exhibited fewer psychological distress symptoms following violent victimization when they resided in neighborhoods characterized by less subjective or objective gender stratification. We find that neighborhood-level gender disparities in socioeconomic resources modify the detrimental impact of victimization on girls' and boys' internalizing symptoms. We elaborate on these conditional influences and conclude with a discussion of how our findings advance scholarship on the role of gender and space in the stress process.

This article investigates the lived experience of hybrid working and the impact this has on knowledge workers’ psychosocial health and wellbeing. Specifically, we focus on how the workplace can promote or hinder wellbeing and how hybrid working is experienced after the pandemic. We draw on salutogenic theory – which considers the factors that support and enhance health and wellbeing – in the context of workplaces, to help us understand individual's experiences of hybrid working spaces. This draws attention to new critical insights into the relationship between workspaces and wellbeing. This article is based on empirical, visual data gathered from a case study of university academic and professional services staff, who were asked to take photographs of their hybrid working practices. Our findings highlight the paradox that individual curation of workspaces represents both personalisation and depersonalisation as employees seek to anchor self-identity and a sense of belonging to the workspace. We offer three contributions in this paper. First, little is known of the experiences of those attending hybrid work environments following the pandemic; therefore, our research contributes to this by using salutogenic theory to emphasise the importance of individuals having control over how they shape their environments to promote personal wellbeing. Second, we demonstrate how the use of visual methods to explore hybrid working highlights how individuals mobilise resources within their workspaces to develop a self-responsibility for health. Third, we highlight the importance of how organisations should recognise individual circumstances when developing hybrid working policies.