IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/urbpla/v4y2019i2p43-52.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding Belonging and Community Connection for Seniors Living in the Suburbs

Author

Listed:
  • Sonya L. Jakubec

    (Faculty of Health, Community and Education, Mount Royal University, Canada)

  • Marg Olfert

    (Faculty of Health, Community and Education, Mount Royal University, Canada)

  • Liza L. S. Choi

    (Faculty of Health, Community and Education, Mount Royal University, Canada)

  • Nicole Dawe

    (Vivo for Healthier Generations, Canada)

  • Dwayne Sheehan

    (Faculty of Health, Community and Education, Mount Royal University, Canada)

Abstract

While much has been explored about notions of both place and belonging in regard to community health of various populations, little is known of the phenomena specific to suburban dwelling seniors. More and more seniors are living in suburban neighborhoods, communities that do not tend well to the belonging needs of this population. This qualitative study sought the perspectives of suburban dwelling seniors about the role of belonging and community connection to their health and wellbeing. Informed by strengths-based approaches to community development and health, the study engaged people from three community groups of older adults in a Canadian suburb (a seniors’ recreational/social group, and two cultural groups) in group interviews concerning the topic. Discoveries included an understanding of belonging as both personal and social, and identification of facilitators and barriers to belonging at personal and systemic levels. Belonging was experienced through connection, contribution and cooperation. These findings are important to shape community engagement with seniors and to inform decision-making and program developments in areas of recreation, leisure, health services, community policing, city planning and other services.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonya L. Jakubec & Marg Olfert & Liza L. S. Choi & Nicole Dawe & Dwayne Sheehan, 2019. "Understanding Belonging and Community Connection for Seniors Living in the Suburbs," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(2), pages 43-52.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v:4:y:2019:i:2:p:43-52
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/1896
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julianne Holt-Lunstad & Timothy B Smith & J Bradley Layton, 2010. "Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-1, July.
    2. Fernando Rajulton & Zenaida Ravanera & Roderic Beaujot, 2007. "Measuring Social Cohesion: An Experiment using the Canadian National Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 80(3), pages 461-492, February.
    3. Gerst-Emerson, K. & Jayawardhana, J., 2015. "Loneliness as a public health issue: The impact of loneliness on health care utilization among older adults," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(5), pages 1013-1019.
    4. Abada, Teresa & Hou, Feng & Ram, Bali, 2007. "Racially mixed neighborhoods, perceived neighborhood social cohesion, and adolescent health in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 2004-2017, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arlindo Madeira & Teresa Palrão & Alexandra Sofia Mendes & Ernesto López-Morales, 2021. "Perceptions about Tourism and Tourists in Historic Neighborhoods: The Case of Alfama," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-14, July.
    2. Shulin Lai & Yuquan Zhou & Yuan Yuan, 2021. "Associations between Community Cohesion and Subjective Wellbeing of the Elderly in Guangzhou, China—A Cross-Sectional Study Based on the Structural Equation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-23, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Qin Xiang Ng & Kuan Tsee Chee & Michelle Lee Zhi Qing De Deyn & Zenn Chua, 2020. "Staying connected during the COVID-19 pandemic," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(5), pages 519-520, August.
    2. Kung, Claryn S.J. & Pudney, Stephen E. & Shields, Michael A., 2022. "Economic gradients in loneliness, social isolation and social support: Evidence from the UK Biobank," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    3. Lauren Newmyer & Ashton M. Verdery & Haowei Wang & Rachel Margolis, 2022. "Population Aging, Demographic Metabolism, and the Rising Tide of Late Middle Age to Older Adult Loneliness Around the World," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(3), pages 829-862, September.
    4. Rachel V. Herron & Nancy E. G. Newall & Breanna C. Lawrence & Doug Ramsey & Candice M. Waddell & Jennifer Dauphinais, 2021. "Conversations in Times of Isolation: Exploring Rural-Dwelling Older Adults’ Experiences of Isolation and Loneliness during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Manitoba, Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-14, March.
    5. Masood A. Badri & Mugheer A. Alkhaili & Hamad Aldhaheri & Guang Yang & Muna Albahar & Asma Alrashdi & Bushra Almulla & Layla Alhyas, 2021. "Experiencing the Unprecedented COVID-19 Lockdown: Abu Dhabi Older Adults’ Challenges and Concerns," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Tsur, Noga & Stein, Jacob Y. & Levin, Yafit & Siegel, Alana & Solomon, Zahava, 2019. "Loneliness and subjective physical health among war veterans: Long term reciprocal effects," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 234(C), pages 1-1.
    7. Britta Wetzel & Rüdiger Pryss & Harald Baumeister & Johanna-Sophie Edler & Ana Sofia Oliveira Gonçalves & Caroline Cohrdes, 2021. "“How Come You Don’t Call Me?” Smartphone Communication App Usage as an Indicator of Loneliness and Social Well-Being across the Adult Lifespan during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-18, June.
    8. Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis & Helder Fernando Pedrosa Sousa & Andreia de Moura & Lilian M. F. Viterbo & Ricardo J. Pinto, 2019. "Health Behaviors as a Mediator of the Association Between Interpersonal Relationships and Physical Health in a Workplace Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-9, July.
    9. Evans-Polce, Rebecca J. & Staff, Jeremy & Maggs, Jennifer L., 2016. "Alcohol abstention in early adulthood and premature mortality: Do early life factors, social support, and health explain this association?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 71-79.
    10. Santini, Ziggi Ivan & Jose, Paul E. & Koyanagi, Ai & Meilstrup, Charlotte & Nielsen, Line & Madsen, Katrine R. & Koushede, Vibeke, 2020. "Formal social participation protects physical health through enhanced mental health: A longitudinal mediation analysis using three consecutive waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in E," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    11. Ruta Clair & Maya Gordon & Matthew Kroon & Carolyn Reilly, 2021. "The effects of social isolation on well-being and life satisfaction during pandemic," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-6, December.
    12. Lena Lämmle & Alexander Woll & Gert B. M. Mensink & Klaus Bös, 2013. "Distal and Proximal Factors of Health Behaviors and Their Associations with Health in Children and Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-35, July.
    13. Fernando L Vázquez & Patricia Otero & J Antonio García-Casal & Vanessa Blanco & Ángela J Torres & Manuel Arrojo, 2018. "Efficacy of video game-based interventions for active aging. A systematic literature review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-24, December.
    14. Valéria Teresa Saraiva Lino & Nádia Cristina Pinheiro Rodrigues & Mônica Kramer de Noronha Andrade & Inês Nascimento de Carvalho Reis & Lucília Almeida Elias Lopes & Soraya Atie, 2019. "Association between visual problems, insufficient emotional support and urinary incontinence with disability in elderly people living in a poor district in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: A six-year follow-up," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-12, May.
    15. Regina Kuppen & Mirjam de Leede & Jolanda Lindenberg & David van Bodegom, 2023. "Collective Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases in an Ageing Population with Community Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-14, February.
    16. Joanne Brooke & Maria Clark, 2020. "Older people’s early experience of household isolation and social distancing during COVID‐19," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(21-22), pages 4387-4402, November.
    17. Fredrica Nyqvist & Bernd Pape & Tony Pellfolk & Anna Forsman & Kristian Wahlbeck, 2014. "Structural and Cognitive Aspects of Social Capital and All-Cause Mortality: A Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 545-566, April.
    18. Clément Meier & Jürgen Maurer, 2022. "Buddy or burden? Patterns, perceptions, and experiences of pet ownership among older adults in Switzerland," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1201-1212, December.
    19. Faruq Abdulla & Zulkar Nain & Md. Karimuzzaman & Md. Moyazzem Hossain & Azizur Rahman, 2021. "A Non-Linear Biostatistical Graphical Modeling of Preventive Actions and Healthcare Factors in Controlling COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-14, April.
    20. Jintao Li & Yan Dai & Cynthia Changxin Wang & Jun Sun, 2022. "Assessment of Environmental Demands of Age-Friendly Communities from Perspectives of Different Residential Groups: A Case of Wuhan, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-20, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v:4:y:2019:i:2:p:43-52. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.