Not Where You Live, but How It Feels: Neighborhood and Psychological Well-Being in Later Life

• In Event: Aging and the Life Course Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 8: Living Arrangements and Housing (In)stability

Abstract

Neighborhood environments are an important context for psychological well-being, particularly in later life when individuals rely heavily on their immediate surroundings. These effects may operate not only through objective conditions but also through residents’ perceptions, yet little is known about which subjective neighborhood experiences strongly translate structural disadvantage into psychological outcomes. This study examines whether multiple subjective neighborhood perceptions mediate the association between objective neighborhood disadvantage and psychological well-being among older adults and evaluates the relative importance of different subjective dimensions. Data come from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), with neighborhood disadvantage measured in Round 1, subjective perceptions in Round 2, and psychological well-being in Round 3, including depressive symptoms (n=1,259), anxiety symptoms (n=1,031), perceived stress (n=1,073), loneliness (n=1,131), and happiness (n=1,268). Ordinary least squares (OLS) models and Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) decomposition were used to estimate indirect effects and compare the contributions of perceived social cohesion, social ties, and neighborhood danger. This study found that neighborhood disadvantage was not significantly associated with any psychological well-being outcomes. In contrast, perceived neighborhood danger emerged as the most consistent predictor, showing strong associations with higher depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, perceived stress, and loneliness. Social cohesion showed limited protective associations, and social ties were not significantly related to any outcomes. Decomposition analyses indicated significant indirect effects for distress outcomes, with perceived danger accounting for approximately 75-77% of the mediated association for depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and perceived stress, and 91% for loneliness. Cohesion and social ties contributed small shares across outcomes. No indirect effects were observed for happiness. These findings suggest that neighborhood disadvantage shapes mental health in later life primarily through perceived safety rather than objective conditions, highlighting subjective experience as a key pathway linking structural context to psychological distress.

Author

• Yuchen Gu, Boston College