Integrated Environmental Perception and Civic Engagement: The Mediating Role of Residential Satisfaction in Urban Migrants’ Community Participation Intention

With the rapid advancement of urbanization, urban migrants’ willingness to participate in community affairs plays a vital role in urban social governance. However, existing studies have paid insufficient attention to the psychological mechanisms through which urban migrants translate perceptions of their residential environment into participation intentions, particularly lacking systematic examinations of the mediating role of residential satisfaction. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory, this study develops a mediation model of “environmental perception → residential satisfaction → community participation intention” to explore how urban migrants’ perceptions of their living environment shape their intention to participation in community affairs via residential satisfaction. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 315 urban migrants in Nanjing, China, and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results reveal that (1) housing conditions, supporting facilities, property management, and the humanistic environment significantly enhance residents’ residential satisfaction, thereby stimulating their intention to participate in community affairs; (2) while location attributes and transportation have no significant direct effects on community participation intention, they can promote participation indirectly through residential satisfaction; and (3) policy perception neither directly influences community participation intention nor indirectly affects it via residential satisfaction. This study uncovers the underlying mechanisms of urban migrants’ community participation, offering both theoretical insights and practical implications for improving the effectiveness of community governance.