PSOC in Community Context: Multi-Level Correlates Of a Measure of Psychological Sense of Community in Low-Income, Urban Neighborhoods

Recent years have seen a steady increase in attention to communities as a source of both risk and protective factors for various individual outcomes. Psychological sense of community (PSOC) is one concept which can be important in describing the ways in which real and perceived aspects of community might mediate both individual and community outcomes. To understand the setting-specific interaction of individual and community, it is necessary to examine how individual and community level factors are simultaneously associated with psychological sense of community. As part of a larger study of community influence on health, we conducted a random household survey in three geographically defined low-income communities in Baltimore City. Nine hundred fourteen individuals were surveyed with a questionnaire that included a measure of psychological sense of community. This article describes the variability of PSOC in these communities and identifies individualand community-level characteristics associated with varying levels of PSOC. Statistical methods of multi-level analysis were employed. Individuals in low-income communities showed heterogeneity for PSOC that is partially explained by variation in individualand community-level characteristics. We suggest that this variability, as well as the promotion of positive PSOC within low-income communities, has implications for the development and implementation of community-based interventions. Article: The current study examined the association of individual and community level factors with individual level psychological sense of community (PSOC) for residents of low-income, inner-city communities. Because PSOC is a setting-dependent outcome, we sought to describe associated factors at both the individual and community level. This required the use of appropriate multi-level statistical techniques, which allow for the concurrent modeling of nested data (persons within neighborhoods). The setting for our study is also of particular interest because urban, low-income neighborhoods are often perceived as uniformly unhealthy for, and unprotective of, their residents. These neighborhoods are also often described as unorganized settings where residents feel alienation and lack of community. We hypothesized instead, that there is a full range of PSOC even in lowincome neighborhoods. Because past research has found healthy community ties, operationalized as a positive PSOC, can benefit both individuals and communities (Chavis & Newbrough, 1985), we were interested in describing its natural occurrence in a setting perceived to be a risk for low PSOC. Recent years have seen a steady increase in attention to communities as a source of both risk and protective factors for various individual outcomes (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, & Sealand, 1993; Lorion, Brodsky, Flaherty, & Cole-Holland, 1995; O’Campo, Gielen, Faden, Xue, Kass, & Wang, 1995; O’Campo, Xue, Wang, & Caughy, 1997; Roberts, 1997). In the psychological literature in particular, community psychology is just one of the many specializations now attending to the role that community level resources and stresses play in the prevention, development, maintenance, and treatment of various mental and physical public health concerns. On the preventive side of this role, Chavis and Newbrough (1985) conclude from their review of 50 years of community research: A healthy community system is one that can resist social, psychological and physiological problems, in addition to enabling individuals and their collectivity to grow to their maximum potential. . . . The community system and its subsystems are dependent on individuals. Conversely, the quality of life of individual community members is dependent on the strength of its community systems. (p. 338) Of course, unhealthy community systems exist as well. Hunter and Riger (1986) point out that perceived loss of community has been a particular concern since the onset of urban industrialism and the concurrent birth of sociology. The decline of bowling leagues, rise of separatists militias, and shrinking of PTA/PTOs have all been cited as recent examples of the decline of communities. Poor, urban neighborhoods are also often perceived as having a weak community system. This weakened or nonexistent community system cannot serve as a resource for its residents. In more extreme cases, urban neighborhoods can be systems that are detrimental and pose a direct threat to residents. In either case, individual isolation and alienation may result as residents withdraw from the community. In Iscoe’s (1974) terms an unhealthy community may be one which is incompetent in caring for the needs of its residents and which may also undermine the development of both the community and