Sociodemographic effects on place bonding

Patterns of amenity migration and recreational home development in much of the USA since the 1990s are changing the local sociodemographic make-up and the relationships formed among people and place. We use the psychological constructs of place attachment, place identity, and place dependence to ass...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of environmental psychology 2010-12, Vol.30 (4), p.443-454
Main Authors: Nielsen-Pincus, Max, Hall, Troy, Force, Jo Ellen, Wulfhorst, J.D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied psychology
Attachment
Biological and medical sciences
Bonding
Construction
Environment. Ecology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Identity
Latent means
Length of residence
Local and absentee property owners
Migration
Northwest
Owners
Place attachment
Place dependence
Place identity
Property
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rural
Seasonality of residence
Sociodemographic aspects
Structural equation modeling
Two dimensional
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Summary:Patterns of amenity migration and recreational home development in much of the USA since the 1990s are changing the local sociodemographic make-up and the relationships formed among people and place. We use the psychological constructs of place attachment, place identity, and place dependence to assess differences in these relationships among new and long-time residents and absentee and local residents in three rural counties in the Inland Northwest. We measured place bonding using data from a mail survey of local (n=531) and absentee (n=239) property owners. We compared structural models suggested in the literature on the psychology of place, and found that a two-dimensional model representing place attachment and place identity was appropriate for both local and absentee property owners. Local owners exhibited stronger place attachment and place identity than absentee owners. Place bonding constructs were also substantially less impacted by the total number of years a property owner had resided on his or her property than by the number of months per year they lived on the property. The findings indicate that sociodemographic changes such as those manifested in second-home development may lead to a population that is less emotionally, behaviorally, and cognitively connected to the places in question, while sociodemographic changes from permanent in-migration may have a substantially smaller effect on place bonding.
ISSN:0272-4944
1522-9610
DOI:10.1016/j.jenvp.2010.01.007