Attachments to Place and Space: How Multiple Belongings Shape Mental Health

• In Event: 41021 - Student Forum Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 5: Mental Health and Well-being

Abstract

People have historically tended to develop attachments, identifications, and meanings associated with specific spaces and places. Research has established positive associations between feeling a sense of belonging to various levels of place and a range of health outcomes. However, extant literature has underexplored the dynamics through which experiencing multiple belongings simultaneously affects mental health outcomes as well as whether one level of belonging is most protective of health. Research has also neglected to investigate the mental health effects of a regional sense of belonging. This study disentangles the health effects of feeling a sense of simultaneously belonging to different levels of place and space (i.e., local/community, city/town, province, and Canada) and investigates their spatial variation. Results suggest the positive mental health effects of multiple belongings as well as individual levels of belonging to place; that these effects might be cumulative/multiplicative; and that these benefits do not vary significantly across space.

Author

• Cesar Ramirez, University of Toronto