Abstract

The aim was to investigate effects of urban greenery (high vs. low naturalness) on place identity and wellbeing, and the links between place identity and wellbeing. It was shown that participants (Gothenburg, Sweden, N = 1347) estimated a stronger attachment/closeness/belonging (emotional component of place-identity), and more remembrance and thinking about and mental travel (cognitive component of placeidentity) in relation to high vs. low perceived naturalness. High naturalness was also reported to generate higher wellbeing in participants than low naturalness. Furthermore, place identity was shown to predict participants' wellbeing in urban greenery, accounting for 35% of variance explained by the regression. However, there was a stronger relationship between the emotional vs. the cognitive component of place identity and wellbeing. Finally, a significant role of place identity in mediating the naturalnesswellbeing relationship was shown, indicating that the naturalness-wellbeing connection can be partly accounted for by the psychological mechanisms of people-place bonding.

Keywords

naturalness; urban greenery; place identity; wellbeing; affect-regulation

Published in

Frontiers in Psychology
2018, Volume: 9, article number: 491
Publisher: FRONTIERS MEDIA SA

SLU Authors

• Ode Sang, Åsa

  • Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hedblom, Marcus

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Applied Psychology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00491

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/94960