Exploring how Neighborhood Perceptions Influence Emotional Well-Being

• In Event: 40854 - Advances in the Sociology of Emotions

Abstract

A person’s health and well-being are determined by several factors including family history, health behaviors, health care, and social and environmental factors. Adverse Community Environments are a chronic type of community trauma defined as community-level inequities that cause distress at the community and population levels (Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority 2020). Such environments are challenging to upend due to their systemic nature and the limited control individuals may have in changing these conditions. Scholars have explored the links between objective neighborhood conditions and mental health outcomes such as depression. However, fewer studies have examined how neighborhood perceptions may influence overall emotional well-being. Using a national, longitudinal study of American adults, this study examines how perceptions of neighborhood safety, trust, and conditions influence an understudied aspect of emotional well-being: worry. Worry is considered a form of emotional distress and can have lasting effects on quality of life and mental health throughout the life course. Guided by the Stress Process Model, we also consider how personal control may act as coping mechanism to decrease worry and moderate the effect of neighborhood perceptions on worry over time.

Authors

• Lisa Braddix, Wayne State University

• Patricia M. Morton, Wayne State University

• Joy Kadowaki, University of Dayton