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Sense of community in a remote mining town: Validating a Neighborhood Cohesion scale
Author(s) -
Robinson David,
Wilkinson Derek
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf02506926
Subject(s) - scale (ratio) , health psychology , equity (law) , sample (material) , psychology , cohesion (chemistry) , geography , gerontology , socioeconomics , demography , environmental health , sociology , public health , medicine , political science , nursing , cartography , chemistry , organic chemistry , chromatography , law
Psychometric properties and determinants of Buckner's Neighborhood Cohesion Index (NCI) have previously been reported for 206 individuals from three Washington, DC suburbs. This study analyses the properties and determinants of the scale for 1182 mine workers in Elliot Lake, a remote Canadian single‐industry town. Data were collected through in‐person interviews. The scale in the Elliot Lake sample was highly reliable (α=.91) and the Elliot Lake and Washington NCI item‐total scale correlations were similar. Multiple regression found income and education related significantly negatively and years in neighborhood and home ownership significantly positively to NCI with coefficients comparable to those Buckner found in Washington. However, additional significant positive predictors of NCI were home equity, length of home ownership, and the presence of both pre‐school‐age and school‐age children in the home, whereas a significant negative predictor was poor health. The NCI thus appears to be stable across societies, and shows systematic relationships with background variables. Home equity, duration of home ownership, children and health were significant predictors of NCI in our larger Canadian sample.