Eighth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Numerous studies have suggested that environmental factors may influence quality of life through indirect pathways. The list of possible psychological mediators includes agency-related variables (e.g. controllability and self-efficacy) and identity-related variables (e.g. Leyden, 2003; Rogers et al., 2011; Jaśkiewicz and Besta, 2014). From the perspective of Bandura’s theory, human functioning is seen as the product of a dynamic interplay between personal, behavioural, and environmental influences. Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. In attempting to investigate how personal and neighbourhood factors work together, researchers have found significant effects for both variables: neighbourhood walkability and self-efficacy in physical activity (Kaczynski et el., 2012). Self-efficacy has also been shown to moderate the relationship between access to recreational facilities and physical activity (Cerin et al., 2008). The results of Study 1 showed that all the subscales of the Polish version of Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale(Jaśkiewicz and Besta, 2016), except for residential density, were significantly related to walkability self-efficacy in a predicted direction. As anticipated, people living in a more walkable neighbourhood declared better walkability self-efficacy, and this self-belief was in turn related to quality of life in the city. In studies 2a and 2b, we tested the relationship experimentally whereby participants were exposed to (2a) photos of walkable/non-walkable neighbourhoods or (2b) to descriptions of high/low walkable neighbourhoods. They were then asked to assess the walkability of the neighbourhood and to evaluate their potential self-efficacy and quality of life in such a place. In both studies, walkability self-efficacy turned out to be a significant mediator between walkability and quality of life. In Study 3, we used commuting time (an aspect of walkability related to the time that people spend travelling to work) as the independent variable and overall quality of life as the dependent variable. The results showed that a shorter average daily commuting time was linked to stronger walkability self-efficacy beliefs. Individuals who assessed their self-efficacy as higher also declared better overall quality of life. To sum up, our research replicated and extended previous findings on the association between walkability and various well-being measures. We introduced a potential mediator of this relationship, that is, self-efficacy beliefs.