Perceived Neighborhood Environment and Psychological Well-Being of Older Adults in South Korea

Background and Purpose: More cities and towns have adopted community initiatives (e.g., aging-friendly community and livable communities) to serve older adults. The goal of the aging-friendly initiatives is to promote the well-being of older adults in the community by changing the community’s physical and social environment. Although researchers have considered neighborhood socioeconomic status and social environment as important factors to the well-being of older adults, limited literature has empirically examined the relationship between neighborhood environment and psychological well-being of older adults. We hypothesized that (a) perceived neighborhood environment (i.e., safety concern, outdoor spaces (e.g., park), and distance to public spaces (e.g., senior center, bus station) are associated with psychological well-being among older adults, and (b) social network (i.e., family and friend network) moderate this relationship.

Methods: We used the secondary data, A Profile of Older Adults: 2015 conducted by the Busan Social Welfare Development Institute in South Korea. Employing a proportionate quota sampling method, the sample included 1,507 community-dwelling older adults ages 60 or older. The sample included 1,507 community-dwelling older adults aged 60 and older.

We measured the dependent variable of psychological well-being using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) translated in Korean. Independent variables include perceived neighborhood safety (e.g., worry about crime, traffic accident), outdoor spaces (e.g., quality park, clean public space), distance to public spaces (e.g., grocery store, hospital, bus station), and social network (i.e., family network and friend network). We adjusted for individual characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, education, income, and functional abilities.

We employed multiple regression analyses to examine the relationship between perceived neighborhood environment and psychological well-being and to examine the moderating effect of social network.

Results: We find that those who live in a safe neighborhood have higher levels of psychological well-being; those living in a longer distance to public spaces have the lower level of psychological well-being. However, perceived outdoor spaces are not associated with the dependent variable. Greater friend networks are positively associated with psychological well-being. In addition, friend social network moderated the relationship between neighborhood safety and well-being and between distance to public spaces and well-being. For example, those with higher levels of friend network and who live in a longer distance to public spaces had higher levels of well-being, compared to those with lower levels of friend network and who live in a longer distance to public spaces.

Conclusions and Implications: Our study shows that perceived neighborhood environment plays an important role in promoting the psychological well-being of older adults. In particular, social network may serve as a protective factor for those experiencing psychological distress. Social work practitioners and policy makers should provide support for a number of innovative community-based initiatives that aim to address their social needs as well as the physical needs of older adults. Future research should develop a comprehensive scale to measure the neighborhood physical environment.