Centre for Research on Inner City Health, Keenan Research Centre, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St, Michael's Hospital, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 1W8, Canada.
Int J Health Geogr. 2012 Aug 3;11:31. doi: 10.1186/1476-072X-11-31.
There is ample evidence that residential neighbourhoods can influence mental well-being (MWB), with most studies relying on census or similar data to characterize communities. Few studies have actively investigated local residents' perceptions.
Concept mapping was conducted with residents from five Toronto neighbourhoods representing low income and non-low income socio-economic groups. These residents participated in small groups and attended two sessions per neighbourhood. The first session (brainstorming) generated neighbourhood characteristics that residents felt influenced their MWB. A few weeks later, participants returned to sort these neighbourhood characteristics and rate their relative importance in affecting residents' 'good' and 'poor' MWB. The data from the sorting and rating groups were analyzed to generate conceptual maps of neighbourhood characteristics that influence MWB.
While agreement existed on factors influencing poor MWB (regardless of neighbourhood, income, gender and age), perceptions related to factors affecting good MWB were more varied. For example, women were more likely to rank physical beauty of their neighbourhood and range of services available as more important to good MWB, while men were more likely to cite free access to computers/internet and neighbourhood reputation as important. Low-income residents emphasized aesthetic attributes and public transportation as important to good MWB, while non-low-income residents rated crime, negative neighbourhood environment and social concerns as more important contributors to good MWB.
These findings contribute to the emerging literature on neighbourhoods and MWB, and inform urban planning in a Canadian context.
有大量证据表明居住社区会影响心理健康（MWB），大多数研究依赖于人口普查或类似数据来描述社区。很少有研究积极调查当地居民的看法。
使用来自多伦多五个社区的居民进行概念映射，这些社区代表了低收入和非低收入社会经济群体。这些居民参加了小组活动，并在每个社区参加了两次会议。第一次会议（头脑风暴）生成了居民认为影响他们 MWB 的社区特征。几周后，参与者返回对这些社区特征进行排序，并对其影响居民“良好”和“较差”MWB 的相对重要性进行评分。对分类和评分组的数据进行分析，生成影响 MWB 的社区特征概念图。
尽管影响较差 MWB 的因素存在共识（无论社区、收入、性别和年龄如何），但影响良好 MWB 的因素的看法则更为多样。例如，女性更有可能将社区的美丽和可提供的服务范围列为影响良好 MWB 的重要因素，而男性则更有可能将免费使用计算机/互联网和社区声誉列为重要因素。低收入居民强调美学属性和公共交通对良好 MWB 的重要性，而非低收入居民则认为犯罪、负面社区环境和社会问题对良好 MWB 的贡献更大。
这些发现为社区与 MWB 方面的新兴文献做出了贡献，并为加拿大的城市规划提供了信息。
