Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Identifying factors associated with subjective wellbeing in later life has been a long-standing research endeavor; but, the role of neighborhood social cohesion is relatively less studied. We use data from 301 community-dwelling Chinese men and women, aged sixty to ninety-five years, who participated in the Neighborhood Cohesion Study in Hong Kong conducted in 2017. Neighborhood social cohesion was measured using the fifteen-item neighborhood cohesion instrument (Cantonese version). Linear regression models were used to examine the associations of two dimensions of neighborhood social cohesion (social cohesion and neighborhood belonging) with evaluative (life satisfaction), hedonic (feelings of happiness) and eudemonic well-being (sense of purpose and meaning in life). While social cohesion was positively associated with life satisfaction and sense of purpose and meaning in life (both p<0.05) but not with feelings of happiness, neighborhood belonging was positively associated with all measures of subjective wellbeing (all p<0.01). Associations were independent of socio-demographics, lifestyle, medical history, and perceived age-friendliness of neighborhood environments. Stratified analyses indicated that neighborhood social cohesion was more strongly associated with subjective wellbeing in young-old (sixty to sixty-nine years) and in women. Enhancing social cohesion and neighborhood belonging are promising for promoting subjective wellbeing of older people. Community initiatives aiming to strengthen social cohesion and neighborhood belonging are expected to benefit subjective wellbeing among older people, especially as dependence on neighborhood resources increases with age.