Direct and Indirect Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Neighborhood Disadvantage on Mental Health: Psychological Sense of Community as Mediator

Stress is deleterious to mental and physical health and is experienced at differential rates by groups according to socioeconomic disadvantages, partially accounting for health inequities. Psychological sense of community may be one key mechanism in these causal chains, but its roles are complex and some remain poorly understood. This cross-sectional study examined the association of neighborhood disadvantage and household socioeconomic status (SES) with indicators of mental health (stress, anxiety, and depression) and the potential mediating role of psychological sense of community. Multilevel path analysis was used to examine data from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) collected in 2014–16 and neighborhood data from the 2015 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census (N = 1957 participants living in N = 232 neighborhoods). Findings showed that both neighborhood disadvantage and household SES were linked to psychological sense of community, which in turn was negatively associated with stress and depression, thus potentially mediating the effects of SES on stress and mental health. Psychological sense of community can be a resource to protect against stress and depression. However, since sense of community tends to be weaker in disadvantaged neighborhoods, there also may be disparate opportunities to engage in communal processes that can promote resilience to stress and its effects. We discuss implications of these findings for policy, community practice, and further research on the roles that sense of community plays in quality of life.