Swedish study reveals neighborhood attitudes shape well-being more than poverty
A new Swedish study finds that residents in disadvantaged neighborhoods report lower well-being—but only until researchers account for their attitudes toward their surroundings. The finding suggests policymakers and urban planners may have more leverage than previously thought: improving how people perceive their neighborhoods could yield measurable improvements in quality of life.
Originaltitel: Spatial Sorting of Well‐being in Sweden: The Role of Attitudes Towards the Neighbourhood and Neighbourhood Type
<p>Recently, spatial sorting of well-beingat the neighbourhood level has received attention. As most studies merely focus on the distribution itself or one neighbourhood aspect in relation to well-being, this study examined well-being by neighbourhood type, and how residents’ attitudes to the neighbourhood might influence this relationship. The study uses a survey based on a sample ofresidents stratified among ten different neighbourhood types. We find that residents living in or near low-income, high migration and high unemployment neighbourhoods experience lower well-being. This association disappears if controls for attitudes to the neighbourhood are included. Residents in homogeneously Swedish areas experience lower well-beingthat cannot be explainedby neighbourhood attitudes. We concluded that there is a heterogeneous spatial sorting of well-being. These findings illustrated the importance of the neighbourhood for individual well-being and suggested that the spatial sorting of people is not only associated with economic prospects but also emotional life.</p>