Relationships among psychological scales of various concepts related to place attachment

Abstract

Various concepts related to place attachment (person-place bonds) have been proposed in previous studies. In this study, we analyze quantitatively the relationships among person-place bonds concepts (e.g., place attachment, place identity, neighborhood attachment, and sense of place) by focusing on the scales, and aim to guide the development and choice of appropriate person-place bonds scales in future studies. We collected 148 papers and reviewed 69 person-place bonds scales in 67 papers (256 independent questionnaire items) which were developed until 2016, and investigated the definitions of the concepts, dimensions of the scale, and questionnaire items in the scale. Results show that various person-place bonds scales target different spatial levels (e.g. block, neighborhood and city) depending on the concepts, and that some person-place bonds are only composed of physical dimensions (e.g. nature and livability in the place), and others are composed not only of physical dimensions, but also of social dimensions (e.g. social tie and civic action). The former was often used for the attachment to temporal place and tourist destination, and the latter was used for the attachment to smaller place, such as community and neighborhood, particularly place attachment was used in both spatial level, and the definition is not clear depending on authors. Finally, we analyzed the relationships among various concepts of person-place bonds, and found that the relationships among the concepts were characterized by spatial level (From small place to large place) such as neighborhood and city, and definition level (From narrow sense to broad sense) of meanings which the concepts encompassing.