A RT I C L E

SENSE OF COMMUNITY
REFERRED TO THE WHOLE
TOWN: ITS RELATIONS WITH
NEIGHBORING, LONELINESS,
LIFE SATISFACTION,
AND AREA OF RESIDENCE
Miretta Prezza, Matilde Amici, Tiziana Roberti,
and Gloria Tedeschi
University “La Sapienza,” Rome, Italy
■

The aim was to explore the relationships between sense of community and
various factors with respect to a fairly broad area (town, city, or large
quarter of a metropolis). Degree of neighboring, life satisfaction, loneliness,
and area of residence were also considered. Subjects included 630 men and
women, aged 20 –65 years, with different educational levels. They were
individually administered a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Italian
Sense of Community Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the University
of California Loneliness Scale, and a Neighborhood Relations Scale. The
subjects all live in Central Italy. They were divided into six groups as
follows: one group living in a quarter of Rome, three groups living in three
different areas of Grottaferrata (a hill town near Rome) and two groups
living in two areas of Spoleto (the historical center and a working class
suburb), a town in the Umbria region. Multiple regression analysis revealed
the following: Neighborhood relations are stronger for women, for members
of large families, for those with less education, for those living in the
community for many years and for members of groups or associations. The
strongest predictor of sense of community is neighborhood relations, although
years of residence, being married, group participation, and area of residence
are also significant factors. Sense of community is related to life satisfaction
and loneliness in both the large and small town and in the city. Moreover,
although sense of community is strongly associated with area of residence in
Spoleto, this is not true for Grottaferrata. Overall, the results confirm the
usefulness of conceptualizing the sense of community construct separately
from degree of neighboring. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 29, No. 1, 29–52 (2001)

© 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
30 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

INTRODUCTION
Improving the quality of life within the community is one of the main goals of commu-
nity psychology. According to Moles (1979), quality of life is the quality of relations be-
tween the individual and the environment; it has both an objective and a subjective di-
mension. Various areas or domains contribute to the overall quality of life, including
community (Perry & Felce, 1995). In this context, sense of community on a territorial
basis can be used as a subjective indicator of the quality of life. This construct has as-
sumed great importance for community psychology over the last few years both at a the-
oretical and an applied level. A definition of sense of community is provided by McMil-
lan and Chavis (1986). They define it as “a feeling that members have of belonging, a
feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that
members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together.” (p. 9) It is based
on four elements: membership, influence, integration, and fulfillment of needs and a
shared emotional connection.
Many studies demonstrated that sense of community is related to active participa-
tion in community life (Botta, 1994; Chavis & Wandersman, 1990; Davidson & Cotter,
1989, 1997) and subjective well-being (Davidson & Cotter, 1991; Pretty, Andrewes, & Col-
lett, 1994; Pretty, Conroy, Dugay, Fowler & Williams, 1996; Prezza & Costantini, 1998),
confirming the possibility of regarding it as a subjective indicator of quality of life. Nev-
ertheless, many aspects still need to be investigated further. In this study we set out to
explore several of these aspects, including the following: relations between sense of com-
munity and subjective well-being in different-sized urban contexts, relations between
sense of community and area of residence within the community, and relations between
sense of community and neighboring (defined on following page). The topic here was
sense of community with respect to a fairly broad area (town, or large quarter in a big
city). It involved interviewing 630 subjects, residing in three different communities, di-
vided into six groups.
Before presenting the hypotheses and methods of this study, we shall give a brief
overview of research pertaining to the topic and a short description of some of the tar-
get community features to clarify the hypotheses on the relations between sense of com-
munity and the macro variables.

Sense of Community and Territory of Reference,

Relations With Degree of Neighboring
In a study of sense of community on a territorial basis, the geographical unit may con-
sist of:

• The whole town or city, namely an area that is a political and administrative unit,
as in the Sense of Community Scale by Davidson and Cotter (1986, 1991) and in
its Italian adaptation (Prezza & Costantini, 1998) (e.g., “This is a pretty city.”). In
large cities this solution would be questionable and, to our knowledge, it has nev-
er been used.
• The “community” in a general sense, as in Glynn’s questionnaire (1981) on the
Psychological Sense of Community (e.g., “This community has a number of cus-
toms or traditions that other communities do not have.”). In one study, Glynn
(1986) also limited subjective interpretation by asking respondents “to base their
 Sense of Community Referred to the Whole To w n • 31

responses on the whole community (town or city) rather than any sub-area or
neighborhood.” (p. 345)
• A fairly large city quarter (up to about 30,000 inhabitants).
• An area so small that it corresponds to the territory within which the inhabitants
are considered to be “neighbors.” For Unger and Wandersman (1985), neighbors
may be defined “by proximity—next door—people who live in the block.” For ex-
ample, in the Sense of Community Index (Perkins, Florin, Rich, & Wandersman,
1990), at least in the version used by Pretty (Pretty et al., 1994; Pretty et al., 1996),
the term “block” is used (e.g. “I think my block is a good place to live in.”).

The word “neighborhood” is ambiguous: “Neighborhood boundaries are often dif-

ficult to draw because there is little consensus about what constitutes a neighborhood.”
(Coulton, Kobin, & Su, 1996). At times it may refer to a relatively large territorial unit
(a town or city quarter) and at other times it may refer to a small area (immediate neigh-
borhood or block) where neighbors live.
Neighboring is a different and separate construct with respect to sense of commu-
nity but is nevertheless related to it. “Neighboring (broadly defined) involves social in-
teraction, symbolic interaction and the attachment of individuals with people living
around them and the place in which they live.” (Unger & Wandersman, 1985, p. 141)
Neighboring has a social, a cognitive, and an affective component. The affective com-
ponent includes sense of community, attachment to place, and a feeling of mutual aid.
In the social component, apart from the possible negative effects in terms of conflict and
control, the positive role of social support (emotional, instrumental, and informative) is
underlined. Neighbors may establish “strong” ties with each other, but, above all, “weak”
ones, that can be used in case of need and that contribute to promoting social integra-
tion (Granovetter, 1973). The cognitive component concerns both the way residents de-
velop cognitive maps and the symbolic communicative meaning attributed to some phys-
ical aspects of the area perceived as the “neighborhood.”
Empirical studies, however, have often been unable to distinguish among them the
various components hypothesized for neighboring. For example, Skjaeveland, Garling,
and Maeland (1996) overlooked the cognitive component and established six theoreti-
cal dimensions based on previous studies: overt social activities and weak social ties; re-
lating to the social component; sense of mutual aid; sense of community and attachment
to place, concerning the affective component; finally, neighbor annoyance, which takes
in the negative and control aspects of neighborhood. However, the factor analysis ex-
tracted only four factors: neighbor annoyance, weak social ties, supporting acts of neigh-
boring, and neighborhood attachment.
To construct a measure of neighborhood cohesion, Buckner (1988) initially consid-
ered three aspects: attraction to neighborhood, degree of neighboring, and psychological
sense of community. The analysis carried out, however, did not support the multi-
dimensional nature of the instrument. The 18 items of the final version of the Neighbor-
hood Cohesion Scale mostly refer to sense of community and degree of neighboring.
If the territory of reference is very limited “perhaps the manifest acts of neighbor-
ing are empirically indistinguishable from an attached sense of community . . .” (Skjaeve-
land et al., 1996, p. 431). On the contrary, it may be that when sense of community refers
to a broader territory (e.g., a town or city) including the area in which neighbors live,
but not just limited to this, the degree of neighboring or manifest acts of neighboring
32 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

are distinguishable from sense of community even if they contribute to determining it

(Kasarda & Janowitz, 1974).
One of the four elements of sense of community (McMillan & Chavis, 1986) is the
emotional link. This can be estimated (Chavis, Hogge, McMillan, & Wandersman, 1986)
both by assessing involvement in organized activities or groups (civic, business or sports
groups, church groups, etc.) and also by considering the quantity/quality of social rela-
tions with other members of the community, including neighbors. For Glynn (1986), the
number of neighbors one can identify by first name is the strongest predictor of Actual
Psychological Sense of Community. However, this may not automatically extend to cul-
tures other than the American one. For example, in Israel, Sagy, Stern, and Krakover
(1996) did not find any relation between sense of community and internal network.

Relations Between Sense of Community

and Individual Well-Being
In Australian teenagers, sense of community helped to predict loneliness (Pretty et al.,
1994) as well as happiness, worry, and coping (Pretty et al., 1996).
In the United States, Davidson and Cotter (1991) found a significant relationship be-
tween sense of community and subjective well-being in adults living in three different ar-
eas. In the larger city (300,000 inhabitants) this relation was still significant but weaker.
In a small town in Italy (Prezza & Costantini, 1998), sense of community was found to re-
late to life satisfaction, self-esteem, and perceived social support; in an average-sized
town, it only related to life satisfaction; while in a large city, no relationship was found
between sense of community and these variables.
Although on one side these studies support the possibility of considering sense of
community as a subjective indicator of quality of life, on the other they suggest the need
for further research to better understand the meaning and importance of sense of com-
munity, particularly in large urban centers.

Macrolevel Variables and Sense of Community

Some studies document relations between sense of community and macro characteris-
tics concerning the physical-social environment of the territorial community. In a quali-
tative study, Plas and Lewis (1996) recorded a high sense of community in the planned
community of Seaside town, intentionally designed to be hospitable to people and in-
hospitable to automobiles. For Prezza and Costantini (1998), the size of the urban con-
text inversely conditions sense of community. Naser and Julian (1995) found a greater
sense of neighborhood community in interior courtyard buildings than in those with ex-
terior courtyards, and in a mixed-use rather than a single-use neighborhood (but they
used a rather limited number of subjects).
Torri (1998) demonstrated the relationship between a particular popular tradition
and sense of community. She compared sense of community, degree of neighboring, and
life satisfaction in two small Italian towns of around 600 inhabitants, located not far from
each other in Tuscany. Both communities have a picturesque medieval center with well-
preserved restructured houses. The only notable difference between them is that one of
the towns (Montichiello) has, over the last 20 years, prepared a popular theatrical event
(“teatro povero”) every summer in the town square. The show runs daily for 15 days.
 Sense of Community Referred to the Whole To w n • 33

About half of the town’s inhabitants are directly involved in the show or are indirectly
involved in other related activities taking place in that period. In the last few years the
show has attracted visitors from all over the world. Both towns revealed high degrees of
neighboring, life satisfaction, and sense of community, with a significant difference only
in the latter variable: The town with the yearly theatrical event has a significantly higher
sense of community with respect to the other town.
On the whole, there are not many in-depth studies on the relations between sense
of community and urban planning, architectural and social characteristics of the com-
munity. Instead, structural variables have been of interest to environmental psychology.
However, in this area constructs other than sense of community have been studied, par-
ticularly community attachment and satisfaction. Over the past few years, attempts have
been made to build a bridge between these disciplines. In Puddifoot’s view (1995, 1996),
the community identity construct may include domains until now considered separately
by other constructs. Because these bordering fields of study may provide indications for
formulating assumptions about the influence of structural and social factors on sense of
community, some of the results are briefly outlined below.
Attachment to the neighborhood (Hummon, 1992; McGuire, 1997) appears to be
weakly influenced by community size, type, and density, and more affected by the phys-
ical characteristics of one’s own house (e.g., housing quality), by the physical character-
istics of the neighborhood and traffic conditions. A recent study carried out in various
neighborhoods in Rome (Bonaiuto, Aiello, Perugini, Bonnes, & Ercolani, 1999) showed
neighborhood attachment to be influenced, among other things, by spatial physical as-
pects such as a building’s aesthetic pleasantness and the presence of quiet, green areas.
Community satisfaction (Hummon, 1992) appears to be greater in smaller communities
with a low population density and in rural areas. Satisfaction is particularly high for peo-
ple recently moving to a rural community and coming from a city. Also, other objective
conditions of the community (i.e., physical factors, such as better housing quality and
ease of access to parks, and social factors) influence community satisfaction. Finally, for
Hedges and Kelly (1992), smaller, stable, well-demarcated communities (by tradition, dis-
tinctive physical or topographical features or buildings) display a greater sense of iden-
tity.

HYPOTHESES
The study’s hypotheses and queries can be divided into three groups.

1. A first objective was to clarify the connections between neighborhood social relations and
sense of community with reference to the whole town or, in the metropolis, to the quarter.
The hypothesis was that they are distinguishable but that neighborhood relations
help to predict sense of community. Moreover, to understand similarities and dif-
ferences between sense of community and neighborhood relations, the study ex-
amines their relations with certain individual demographic characteristics (sex,
age, number of children in the household, years of residence, and educational
level), as well as participation in community groups and associations.
2. The second group of hypotheses concerned relations between sense of community, with refer-
ence to the whole town, and area of residence within the town. In particular, we hypoth-
esized the following: (a) in medium–small-sized towns, very near a metropolis,
34 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

which have experienced a large influx of new residents from the city in recent
years, in new residential areas, primarily used as dormitories by people who con-
tinue to have close ties with the city—even if these areas are aesthetically more
pleasing—sense of community is probably low compared to other areas of the
town; (b) in medium–small-sized communities, which have been relatively stable
in recent years and which have developed around a historical center that has tak-
en on new value in recent years, the inhabitants of the historical center should
have a higher sense of community (referred to the whole town) than the inhab-
itants of new, anonymous, peripheral working-class quarters, with a road structure
at right angles and with apartment blocks of several stories. The hypotheses con-
cerning this group will be further specified when the communities chosen and
the areas identified within them are described.
3. The third group of hypotheses concerned the connections between sense of community, neigh-
borhood relations and some indicators of individual well-being, particularly loneliness—
inversely—and life satisfaction. The hypothesis was that these indicators would be
related to sense of community and neighborhood relations but only in smaller ur-
ban contexts and not so much in a large city. If we found a relation between sense
of community and loneliness and between sense of community and life satisfac-
tion, then we would examine whether these relations continued to exist after con-
trolling for the influence of demographic variables and neighborhood relations.

Another hypothesis was that the four variables load on two factors: loneliness and
life satisfaction on one factor; neighborhood relations and sense of community
on the other factor. Using the distinction made by Rhoads and Raymond (1981),
the two factors could correspond to the intimate self-space factor and the social
functioning factor.

The Target Communities of the Study

Three very different communities located in Central Italy were chosen for this study. Be-
cause we were interested in investigating the relation between sense of community and
individual well-being in a large city, the first community chosen was a quarter of Rome,
Casalbruciato.
Casalbruciato is a typical, densely populated low-income quarter of clerical and blue
collar workers situated not far from the center of Rome. It was built in the 1970s and
now has about 28,000 inhabitants. It is characterized by 5 –7 storied housing blocks, most
with no internal or external courtyards, built next to each other. Its boundaries were es-
tablished by Rome’s municipal authorities and are clearly perceived by the inhabitants.
Its road system follows a rectangular plan with big roads, heavy traffic and very few green
areas. The percentage of the active population is 45.1% and the unemployment rate is
22.1% (ISTAT, 1995).
The second community chosen was Grottaferrata. This is a small administratively
independent town of about 17,000 inhabitants located 21 kilometers from Rome. Be-
cause of its proximity to Rome, the town has undergone an excessive building boom
that has, at least in part, changed its appearance. Owing to its favorable location in a
green hill area (the Castelli Romani), it is increasingly seen as an up-market outlying
Roman suburb with many commuters traveling to the capital daily for work, business,
or recreation. It has an active population of 41.8% and an unemployment rate of 17.8%.
 Sense of Community Referred to the Whole To w n • 35

Three different areas were taken into consideration which are representative of the
whole town.

• The historic center of Grottaferrata (1140 inhabitants) is the old historical and cul-
tural heart of the town characterized by small, old, well-kept buildings.
• Peripheral Grottaferrata (570 inhabitants) is an old built-up area adjacent to the
historic center with the same housing types, but with a strong separate identity with
respect to the town center and with few places for social and cultural activities.
• A new residential area of Grottaferrata (360 inhabitants) a little further out from
the town center. This outlying suburb is composed of luxury villas with large gar-
dens inside precincts with private roads, no shopping facilities but with many sports
facilities. Its inhabitants are mainly people from Rome who decided to move away
from the city but who still mostly work or study there.

Among the three distinct areas chosen for Grottaferrata, it was assumed that sense of
community with respect to the whole town would be weaker in the new up-market resi-
dential area than in both the historic center and the old peripheral area. We expected
that the inhabitants of this new up-market area, who had come from Rome, would not
be integrated into the spirit of the town, would not take part in its traditions, and would
have more ties with the capital.
Spoleto, located about 100 kilometers northeast of Rome, was chosen as the third com-
munity. Spoleto is a small town (39,000 inhabitants) in the province of Perugia, and is
renowned worldwide for its harmonious medieval architecture and cultural events, partic-
ularly for the Due Mondi (“Two Worlds”) theater festival. It has an active population of 40.3%
and an unemployment rate of 11.9%. The study considered two distinct areas of the town:

• Spoleto old town center (4400 inhabitants), with its small restructured old stone
houses, narrow low-traffic streets and monuments, located on a hill enclosed by
medieval walls, is a tourist attraction.
• Spoleto PEEP, a middle-working class suburb of around 1200 inhabitants enclosed
within four main streets, was built about 18 years ago and lies 4 kilometers from
the historic town center. The suburb is well-connected to the center and has many
facilities. Typical housing consists of 5 –6 storied apartment blocks built by a state
agency responsible for municipal housing projects. The low-rent apartments were
assigned to particularly needy families on public administration records.

The inhabitants of Spoleto should experience a high sense of community due to the
town’s strong traditions and its positive image abroad. It could be hypothesized, howev-
er, that this sense of community was not evenly distributed in the territory: It should be
greater in the Old Town than in the outlying suburban area. The latter quarter does not
have the architectural beauty and harmony of the town center and Spoleto is, in any case,
only identified with the old town center.

METHOD
Subjects
There were 630 subjects, aged 20 –65 years, residing in their quarter for at least 5 years.
They were subdivided into six groups and interviewed. The subjects were contacted in-
36 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

dividually at home according to a sampling method that was as representative as possi-

ble of the age range considered.
Four groups were set up in Rome or nearby: one group of 200 subjects in the Casal-
bruciato quarter of Rome (Group Rm.Csb) and three in the nearby town of Grottafer-
rata: 80 subjects in Grottaferrata historic center (Group Grott.C); 70 subjects in periph-
eral Grottaferrata (Group Grott.P); 80 subjects in the new up-market residential area of
Grottaferrata (Group Grott.R).
Questionnaire distribution in both Rome and Grottaferrata was based on the door-
to-door method, after random selection of streets, buildings and apartments. If people
were unwilling to be interviewed or were not at home on two different occasions, then
interviewers moved next door. We tried to build a representative sample with respect to
age, sex and educational level by using data from the last official census (ISTAT, 1995),
and targeting the last 30 interviews on this. Cases of interview refusal were as follows: 60
in Rome Casalbruciato, 23 in Grottaferrata Center, 41 in Peripheral Grottaferrata, and
18 in Residential Grottaferrata.
Two groups were set up in Spoleto: one in the old town center (Group Spol.C, of
100 subjects) and one in the PEEP suburb (Group Spol.PEEP, of 100 subjects). It was pos-
sible to randomly select subjects in Spoleto by using electoral lists. The number of re-
fusals were 2 in Spoleto Center and 25 in Spoleto PEEP.
Table 1 reports the sociodemographic characteristics of the six groups of subjects.
These do not differ from one another in regard to age, sex, marital status, and children.

Table 1. Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Six Groups of Subjects and Significance

of the Differences Between Groups

Spol.
Rm.Csb Grott.C Grott.P Grott.R Spol.C PEEP

n 200 80 70 80 100 100

Age
M 40.09 37.04 38.26 40.46 40.09 39.43 F (5,624) 5 0.96;
SD 12.51 12.55 12.76 12.20 12.51 11.19 p 5 0.44
Length of residence
M 27.41 28.95 30.70 13.00 28.83 11.17 F (5,624) 5 61.34;
SD 13.44 12.46 11.21 4.35 11.65 3.36 p 5 0.000
Gender: % male 49% 46% 46% 46% 50% 50% x2 5 0.80; NS
Marital status
Single 35% 40% 42% 40% 44% 31% x2 5 14.20;
Married 60% 51% 44% 50% 48% 59% df 5 10;
Divorced/widow 5% 9% 14% 10% 8% 10% p 5 0.16
Level of education
Elementary 29% 10% 15% 4% 13% 21% x2 5 105.30;
Lower secondary 38% 33% 33% 10% 21% 33% df 5 15;
Upper secondary 27% 45% 46% 52% 47% 39% p 5 0.0001
University 6% 12% 6% 34% 19% 7%
Children: % yes 55% 54% 50% 50% 49% 58% x2 5 2.52; NS
Group participation: 26% 29% 40% 26% 39% 44% x2 5 16.10; df = 5;
% yes p 5 0.006

Note. Rm.Csb 5 Casalbruciato quarter of Rome; Grott.C 5 Grottaferrata historic center; Grott.P 5 Peripheral Grottaferrata;
Grott.R 5 Up-market residential area of Grottaferrata; Spol.C 5 The old town center of Spoleto; Spol. PEEP 5 A middle-work-
ing class suburb of Spoleto about 4 kilometers from the historic town center.
 Sense of Community Referred to the Whole To w n • 37

On the other hand, they do differ in years of residence, educational level, and partici-
pation in associations and meetings within the community. In the relatively new areas—
the residential area of Grottaferrata and Spoleto PEEP—average years of residence are
considerably lower (13.0 years and 11.17 years, respectively) than the other areas (aver-
age years of residence between 27 and 31 years). To further confirm that many Italians
live their whole life in their birthplace, 35% of the 630 subjects were born in their pres-
ent area of residence while 15% moved back there before age 15.
The different distribution of educational levels reflects the socioeconomic level of the
areas studied. In up-market residential Grottaferrata, 14% of subjects had only elementary
or lower secondary education as against 54% in Spoleto PEEP and as many as 67% in Rome
Casalbruciato, where the inhabitants are mainly blue-collar or clerical workers.
The different degree of participation in groups and associations reflects the differ-
ent culture in the six areas studied. Percentage participation is higher in the two Spole-
to areas and in residential Grottaferrata. On the whole, participation is greater in sport
associations, followed by parish, cultural, trade union/political party, and voluntary work
associations.
Information on daily commuting was obtained only for the three Grottaferrata ar-
eas. Of the subjects in the residential area, 91% go to the capital for important shopping,
64% for medical services, 46% for sport and/or recreational activities and 48% for work
or study purposes. These percentages are considerably lower in the other two areas of
the town, although they remain at fairly high levels: in central Grottaferrata, 47% go to
the capital for important shopping, 28% for medical services, 5% for sport and/or recre-
ational activities and 26% for work or study; in peripheral Grottaferrata, 60% go to Rome
to shop, 21% go for medical services, 4% for sport/recreational activities and 26% for
work/study purposes.

Measure s
All subjects were individually administered a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Ital-
ian Scale of Sense of Community, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the University of Cal-
ifornia Loneliness Scale, and the Neighborhood Relations Scale.

Sense of Community. Prezza, Costantini, Chiarolanza, and Di Marco’s (1999) Italian Scale
of Sense of Community (ISSC) was developed by translating and modifying Davidson and
Cotter’s (1986) Sense of Community Scale. We used the town or the quarter (only in the
Casalbruciato sample) as point of reference. The Italian version comprises 18 items
(shown in Table 4); 10 of the 18 items are literal translations of items 3,4,5,6,8,9,11,14,16,
and 17 of the Sense of Community Scale. An inverted score was assigned to some items.
The scale showed Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.82.

Life Satisfaction. An Italian translation of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener,
Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) was used. This scale is composed of five items show-
ing the overall subjective evaluation of life satisfaction. The Italian translation has already
been used in other studies (Prezza & Costantini, 1998; Torri, 1998; Vairo, 1996) and it
shows high internal cohesion (Cronbach’s alpha between .87 and .90).

Loneliness. A translation of Russel, Peplau, and Cutrona’s University of California Los An-
geles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale (1980) was used, courtesy of Professor L. Solano from
38 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

“La Sapienza” University of Rome. This scale is composed of 20 items, coded on a 4-point
scale (1–4). Ten items are inverted (1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 15, 16, 19, and 20). The higher the
score, the greater the experience of loneliness.

Neighborhood Relations Scale (NRS). This scale was constructed for this and for another
study (Torri, 1998). It is composed of seven items, aimed at measuring the quantity and
quality of neighborhood relations, and corresponds to the degree of neighboring factor
used by Buckner (1988) as one of the three factors that led to drafting the items for con-
structing the Neighborhood Cohesion Scale. In particular, items 1, 2, and 3 were taken
respectively, from items 3, 15, and 17 of Buckner’s scale (1988). The other items used in
the scale are shown in Table 4. Items 1 to 5 have the following answer format: (5) “every-
day,” (4) “often,” (3) “sometimes,” (2) “rarely,” (1) “never.” Items 6 and 7 have an open-
answer structure. Interviewees sometimes answer with a number or sometimes with
indefinite pronouns. Scoring of the two items is as follows: a score of 5 points if respon-
dents say “all” or “nearly all” or answer with number 7 or over; 4 points if they say “a lot”
or “many” or “several,” or when they give numbers 5 or 6; 3 points for saying “fairly” or
numbers 3 or 4; 2 points for saying “few,” or “nearly no one,” or giving numbers 1 or 2;
1 point if they say “nobody” or zero. On 305 subjects (Tedeschi, 1997; Torri, 1998) the
Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient was high (5 .89). With regard to factor structure,
a single factor emerged (all seven items showed factor saturation on this of above .72).

Analysis
All statistical calculations (descriptive statistical analysis, reliability analysis, factor analy-
sis, zero-order correlation, multiple regression, ANOVA) were carried out using the
Windows SPSS program. The EQS program (Bentler, 1995) was used for confirmatory
factor analysis.

RESULTS
Check of the Validity of the Instruments Used
First, we decided to check the reliability of the instruments used by calculating Cron-
bach’s alpha and Guttman’s split-half coefficients and factor structure using the princi-
pal component method (n 5 630).

Italian Scale of Sense of Community. Factor analysis extracted five factors with eigenvalues
above 1, accounting for 26.4%, 10.0%, 7.6%, 6.2% and 5.8% of the variance, respectively.
However, confirming the possibility of using a total score, on the first factor of the un-
rotated matrix, all the items have factor loadings greater than 0.36 and scale reliability
coefficients are quite good (Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.82; Guttman’s split-half 5 0.80).

Neighborhood Relations Scale. It showed quite high internal consistency. In factor analysis
only one factor yielded an eigenvalue above 1—accounting for 59.3% of the variance—
and all the items on this have factor loadings above 0.67. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.88 and
the Guttman’s split-half coefficient was 0.80.

Satisfaction with Life Scale. Factor analysis extracted just one factor with an eigenvalue
above 1, accounting for 66.9% of the variance; all the items on this have factor loadings
 Sense of Community Referred to the Whole To w n • 39

above 0.79. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.87 and the Guttman’s split-half coefficient was 0.81.

Loneliness Scale. Factor analysis extracted four factors with an eigenvalue above 1, ac-
counting for 32.7%, 7.6%, 6.1% and 5.2% of the variance, respectively. On the unrotat-
ed factor matrix, all items except No. 4 (which had a factor loading approaching zero)
had factor loadings above 0.46 on the first factor. The Italian wording of item 4, using a
negative phrase (“non mi sento solo”) is probably confusing, as some respondents also
mentioned. Excluding this item, Cronbach’s alpha was 0.89 and Guttman’s split-half co-
efficient was 0.88. These values confirmed the possibility of using the total score of the
19-item scale, thus excluding item 4.

Relations Between Sense of Community

and Neighborhood Social Relations
Tables 2 and 3 show the average values for the four scales and their correlations in each
group. Pearson’s correlation coefficient r between Sense of Community and Neighbor-
hood Relations is significant in five out of the six groups (with values ranging between
0.19 and 0.64), albeit for different levels of probability.
It should be noted that the first aim of this study was to see whether the two con-
structs (Sense of Community and Neighborhood Relations) could be considered sepa-
rately. Therefore, the first step was to verify by means of factor analysis if it was possible
to group the items of the two scales into two distinct factors. Factor analysis was carried
out using the principal component method and varimax rotation, simultaneously enter-
ing the 7 items of the Neighborhood Relations Scale and the 18 items of the Italian Scale
of Sense of Community, asking for two factors. The two factors respectively account for
24.4% and 12.4% of the variance. On the rotated factor matrix (see Table 4), all the items

Table 2. Means (M), Standard Deviations ( SD) and F-Values for All Scales by Group

Spol. F
Rm.Csb Grott.C Grott.P Grott.R Spol.C Peep Total df 5 5,625

N 200 80 70 80 100 100 630

Sense of community
M 48.73 49.55 48.88 47.90 54.50 46.75 49.35 20.07***
SD 6.68 5.20 5.12 5.68 6.02 5.82 6.42
Neighborhood relations
M 19.03 16.50 15.50 16.25 19.07 16.55 17.57 7.70***
SD 6.10 5.36 5.59 6.69 5.32 6.05 5.93
Life satisfaction
M 23.39 21.61 20.87 23.26 22.29 17.79 21.80 11.75***
SD 6.38 6.19 6.99 6.69 6.36 5.61 6.62
Loneliness
M 31.48 32.66 33.87 34.34 32.10 39.00 33.55 11.28***
SD 6.10 5.36 5.59 6.69 5.32 6.09 5.93

Note. RmCsb 5 Casalbruciato quarter of Rome; Grott.C 5 Grottaferrata historic center; Grott.P 5 Peripheral Grottaferrata;
Grott.R 5 Up-market residential area of Grottaferrata; Spol.C 5 The old town center of Spoleto; Spol. PEEP 5 A middle-work-
ing class suburb of Spoleto about 4 kilometers from the historic town center.
40 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

Table 3. Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients Between All the Scales for Each Group

Spol.
Rm.Csb Grott.C Grott.P Grott.R Spol.C Peep

N 200 80 70 80 100 100

ISSCa–NRSb .19** .17 .54*** .48*** .37*** .64***
ISSC–UCLA 2.36*** 2.10 2.47*** 2.33** 2.37*** 2.80***
ISSC–SWLSc .31*** .24* .51*** .49*** .22* .52***
NRS–UCLAd 2.13 2.17 2.27* 2.23* 2.48*** 2.71***
NRS–SWLS .12 2.01 .28* .30** .11 .36***
UCLA–SWLS 2.48*** 2.22 2.52*** 2.24* 2.47*** 2.55***

Note. RmCsb 5 Casalbruciato quarter of Rome; Grott.C 5 Grottaferrata historic center; Grott.P 5 Peripheral Grottaferrata;
Grott.R 5 Up-market residential area of Grottaferrata; Spol.C 5 The old town center of Spoleto; Spol. PEEP 5 A middle-work-
ing class suburb of Spoleto about 4 kilometers from the historic town center.
aISSC 5 Italian Scale of Sense of Community
bNRS 5 Neighborhood Relations Scale
cSWLS 5 Satisfaction With Life Scale
dUCLA 5 University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale

*p , 0.05 **p , 0.01 ***p , 0.001.

of the Neighborhood Relations Scale have a higher factor loading on the first factor,
while all the items of the Sense of Community Scale—except for item 1 (“Many people
in this town are available to provide help when someone needs it.”)—have higher fac-
tor loadings on the second factor. However, item No. 2 (“The people in this town are po-
lite and well mannered.”), No. 7 (“This town gives me an opportunity to do a lot of dif-
ferent things.”) and No. 12 (“If I need help, this town has excellent services available to
meet my needs.”) also have relatively high (..30) factor loadings on the first factor.
Neighborhood social relations evidently have a bearing on views concerning the possi-
bility for exchange and support relations within the town or city quarter.
To understand whether the items of the Scale of Sense of Community and those of
the Neighborhood Scale load on two separate factors in all three communities consid-
ered, three more factor analyses were calculated (see Table 4). In the first, only the sub-
jects residing in Rome (n 5 200) were considered; in the second, only those residing in
the three areas of Grottaferrata (n 5 230) and in the third, the subjects residing in the
two areas of Spoleto (n 5 200).
The items of the two scales load into two clearly distinct factors in Rome, are quite
distinct in Spoleto (where all the items on sense of community load at higher levels in
the same factor) and are less separable in Grottaferrata. As shown in Table 4, in the
Grottaferrata subjects, four items of the Italian Scale of Sense of Community load more
on the Neighborhood Relations factor, even though two of them have low factor load-
ings on both factors.
Before drawing any conclusions from this analysis, it was decided to carry out a con-
firmatory factor analysis using the EQS program (Bentler, 1995) for all 630 subjects and
with the items of the two scales. Comparisons were made of results obtained using the
two-correlated-factor model, the two-noncorrelated-factor model and the single-factor
model. Of the three models, the two-correlated-factor model turned out to be the best
(estimated correlation between the two factors was 0.371). Even if the goodness of fit
Table 4. Italian Scale of Sense of Community Together With Neighborhood Relations Scale: Rotated Factor Loading in Two Factors
All subjects RM Csb Spol. Grott.

Italian Scale of Sense of Community N 5 630 n 5 200 n 5 200 n 5 230

1° F. 2° F. 1° F. 2° F. 1° F. 2° F. 1° F. 2° F.
Many people in this town are available to provide help when .41 .32 (.41) .48 .52 .39 .50
someone needs it.
The people in this town are polite and well-mannered. .33 .43 (.49) .60 .59 .39 .31
I like the house in which I live. .42 (.35) .29 .63 .25
I like the neighborhood in which I live. .66 (.54) .65 .72 .39
I feel safe here. .52 (.45) .53 .58 .38
I don’t like the people living in my area. .47 (.43) .35 .59 .23
This town gives me an opportunity to do a lot of different things. .30 .40 (.45) .63 .43 .34
This is a pretty town. .66 (.55) .77 .67 .49
If you want to, in this town it’s possible to participate in local politics. .35 (.36) .32 .49 .28
It would take a lot for me to move away from this town. .62 (.58) .58 .74 .62
In this town, it’s difficult to have good social relations. .44 (.46) .43 .57 .39 .32
If I need help, this town has many excellent services available to meet .33 .34 (.40) .54 .46 .33 .35
my needs.
If the people here were to organize, they would have a good chance .30 (.35) .37 .43 .31 .37
of reaching their desired goals.
I feel like I belong here. .66 (.61) .72 .74 .64
I generally respect the habits and traditions of this town. .51 (.52) .46 .59 .54
There are some holiday or anniversary days in this town that involve .47 (.40) .43 .49 .44
most of the people.
There are few chances to meet people in this town. .27 (.31) .45 .30 .26
When I travel I am proud to tell others where I live. .71 (.64) .72 .70 .32 .60

Neighborhood Relations Scale

I visit with my neighbors in their homes. .83 .83 .86 .74
(.84)
I have neighbors over to my house to visit. .79 .79 .83 .68
(.78)
I stop and talk with people in my neighborhood. .72 .69 .76 .61
(.66)
I meet with my neighbors to spend some time doing things together. .80 .81 .85 .71
(.79)
I exchange favors with my neighbors. .72 .81 .78 .62
(.68)
How many of your neighbors would you have no problem asking to .61 .64 .76 .66
borrow little things? (.56)
How many of your neighbors do you consider as your friends? .76 .74 .72 .79
(.72)
Percent of total variance 24.4 12.4 23.1 15.5 36.9 11.1 19.7 9.6

Note. Primary factor loadings are indicated and secondary factor loadings are only given (in italics) if greater than 0.30. Only for n = 630, the saturations estimated with the EQS program (in the
two correlated-factor model) are given in parentheses.
42 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

indexes are higher for this model (Bentler-Bonett Normed Fit Index 5 0.707; Bentler-
Bonett Non-Normed Fit Index 5 0.719; Comparative Fit Index 5 0.744) compared to
those of the other two models, especially compared to the single factor model (with val-
ues of 0.497, 0.477, and 0.521, respectively), they are nevertheless quite low. This may
be due to the complexity of the factor structure of the Italian Scale of Sense of Com-
munity, which is not adequately represented by a single factor (Prezza et al., 1999). Its
structure should be further explored, but this lies outside the scope of the present work.
What can be said, however, is that it is possible to consider Sense of Community re-
ferred to large territorial units separately from Neighborhood Relations; and this sepa-
ration is more pronounced when the urban context is larger. Therefore, it was deemed
possible to go on to the subsequent hypotheses, considering Sense of Community sepa-
rately from Neighborhood Relations.

Neighborhood Relations and Sense of Community:

Their Relations W ith Some Sociodemographic Variables
To further investigate similarities and differences between Sense of Community and
Neighborhood Relations we will now examine their connections with some sociodemo-
graphic variables.
Two multiple regressions were carried out using the stepwise method. Neighbor-
hood Relations was the dependent variable in the first regression and Sense of Commu-
nity in the second. In both multiple regressions, the first block of independent variables
included sex (males 5 1, females 5 0), age, number of children, number of family mem-
bers, years of residence in the same area, marital status (those living with their spouse
were coded as 1 while all others were coded as 0), and educational level (elementary 5
1, lower secondary 5 2, upper secondary 5 3, university degree 5 4).
Based on the zero-order correlation (see Table 5), all the demographic variables sig-
nificantly correlated with Neighborhood Relations. Considered simultaneously in the
first block, these sociodemographic variables do not account for a very high portion of
variance—7% approximately—and four of them have a significant regression coeffi-
cient.
On average, the following have stronger neighborhood relations: women (p 5
0.0004), people with a low level of education (p 5 0.008), people with large families (p
5 0.002) and those living in the same area for several years (p 5 0.017). The “group par-
ticipation in the community” variable (1 5 yes; 0 5 no) was included in the second
block. This variable alone accounts for a significant amount of variance—about 4%: Peo-
ple taking part in community groups or meetings on average have stronger neighbor-
hood relations (p 5 0.0001).
Regarding Sense of Community, at the bivariate level (see Table 5) it has a sig-
nificant positive correlation with age, years of residence, number of children and liv-
ing with the spouse, and a negative tendency for educational level. Considered to-
gether, demographic variables account for about 7% of the Sense of Community
variance (see Table 6). Among these, significant regression coefficients are only ob-
tained for years of residence (p 5 0.001) and marital status (p 5 0.01). Group partic-
ipation, included in the second block, increases the variance accounted for by the re-
gression by 4%, and it has a very significant coefficient (p 5 0.0001). Another block
including Neighborhood Relations was added to the regression analysis, increasing ex-
Table 5. Means, Standard Deviations and Zero-Order Correlations for All Study Variables (N = 630)

M SD 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

1 ISSC 49.35 6.42 .36 2.42 .35 .16 .25 .13 2.00 2.06 .01 .17 .22 2.02 .01 2.09 .35 2.18 2.07
2 NRS 17.58 5.93 2.32 .21 .13 .14 .15 2.10 2.18 .15 .10 .17 2.12 2.07 2.09 .11 2.08 .16
3 UCLA 33.55 8.93 2.47 2.00 .00 2.01 .02 .00 2.05 2.07 2.16 .01 2.03 .03 2.07 .27 2.15
4 SWLS 21.80 6.62 .07 .13 .09 2.06 .05 2.01 .18 .08 2.05 2.01 .08 .03 2.26 .16
5 Age 39.29 12.23 .35 .68 .01 2.40 2.08 .54 .08 2.03 2.07 .04 2.01 .01 .04
6 Length residence 23.78 13.15 .29 .06 2.28 .01 .19 .05 .19 .15 2.31 .17 2.41 .19
7 No. children .99 1.09 2.03 2.36 .29 .63 .01 .03 .05 2.01 2.10 .01 .03
8 Sex .48 .50 .01 .00 2.05 .09 2.02 2.01 2.02 .01 .01 .01
9 Education 2.46 .93 2.16 2.24 .01 2.02 .06 .29 .12 2.07 2.27
10 N. family members 3.59 1.26 .09 2.07 .05 .08 2.11 2.09 .06 .01
11 Marital status .54 .50 .00 2.07 2.02 2.03 2.05 .04 2.08
12 Group participation .33 .47 .06 2.03 2.05 .06 .10 2.10
13 Dummy Grott.P .11 .31 2.13 2.13 2.15 2.15 2.24
14 Dummy Grott.C .13 .33 2.15 2.17 2.17 2.26
15 Dummy Grott.R .13 .33 2.17 2.17 2.26
16 Dummy Spol.C .16 .37 2.19 2.29
17 Dummy Spol. Peep .16 .37 2.29
18 Dummy Rm.Csb. .32 .47

Note. Bold face print is used when p , 0.05. Rm.Csb 5 Casalbruciato quarter of Rome; Grott.C 5 Grottaferrata historic center; Grott.P 5 Peripheral Grottaferrata; Grott.R 5 Up-market residential
area of Grottaferrata; Spol. C 5 The old town center of Spoleto; Spol. PEEP 5 A middle-working class suburb of Spoleto about 4 kilometers from the historic town center.
44 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

Table 6. Stepwise Regression Results (Adjusted R Square After Inclusion of Each Block and
Standardized Beta After the Inclusion of Last Block) Predicting Sense of Community From
Individual Attributes and Area Dummies

Dependent variables

Sense of Sense of
Sense of community community
community (with Grottaferrata (with Spoleto
(with all subjects) subjects) subjects)
N 5 630 n 5 230 n 5 200

Independent variables b b b
First block
Age 0.055 20.029 0.134°
Length of residence 0.089* 0.091 20.028
No. children 20.050 20.001 20.055
Sex 0.017 0.024 0.068
Education 0.001 0.093 0.001
No. family members 0.016 0.094 20.030
Marital status 0.144** 0.122 0.054
Adj R2 (after 1° block) 0.074 0.056 0.192
Second block
Group participation 0.143*** 0.105 0.172**
Adj R2 (after 2° block) 0.116 0.089 0.245
Third block
Neighborhood relations 0.298*** 0.326*** 0.411***
Adj R2 (after 3° block) 0.209 0.174 0.425
Fourth block (area dummies)
Dummy Grott.P 0.058 0.057 —
Dummy Grott.C 0.090* 0.086 —
Dummy Grott.R 0.043 — —
Dummy Spol.C 0.320*** — —
Dummy Spol.Peep 20.049 — 20.484***
Adj R2 (after 4° block) 0.292 0.170 0.523
X of means intercept 38.54 38.65 41.29

Note. Rm.Csb 5 Casalbruciato quarter of Rome; Grott.C 5 Grottaferrata historic center; Grott.P 5 Peripheral Grottaferrata;
Grott.R 5 Up-market residential area of Grottaferrata; Spol.C 5 The old town center of Spoleto; Spol. PEEP 5 A middle-work-
ing class suburb of Spoleto about 4 kilometers from the historic town center.
°p , 0.10 *p , 0.05 **p , 0.01 ***p , 0.001.

plained sense of community variance by 90%, with a highly significant coefficient (p

5 0.0001).

Differences in Sense of Community in the Six Areas

A last block of five dummy variables, representing the six areas, was added to the re-
gression. Their inclusion is highly significant and accounts for another 8% of the sense
of community variance. By examining those variables with a significant coefficient (see
Table 6), we can say that, with respect to Rome’s Casalbruciato quarter, the areas with
the greatest sense of community are the center of Spoleto (p 5 0.0000) and the center
of Grottaferrata (p 5 0.02).
 Sense of Community Referred to the Whole To w n • 45

Relations Between Sense of Community and Area

of Residence in Grottaferrata
Regarding the second group of objectives, it was hypothesized that in Grottaferrata the
inhabitants of the residential area, very tied to the nearby metropolis, have less sense of
community than the inhabitants of the other two areas considered.
One-way variance analysis, conducted only with the subjects who were residents of
Grottaferrata revealed no differences between inhabitants of the three Grottaferrata ar-
eas (F (2,227) 5 1.93; p 5 0.15).
A multiple regression was also carried out with the subjects residing in the three
Grottaferrata areas (n 5 230), with Sense of Community as the dependent variable. The
demographic variables included in the first block account for about 6% of the variance.
Group participation, in the second block, accounts for about 3%, while Neighborhood
Relations, included in the third block, account for a further 8%. The two dummy vari-
ables representing central Grottaferrata and peripheral Grottaferrata do not add any pre-
dictive capacity to the equation and are not significant. Table 6 reports only the results
after inclusion of the last block, both for this regression and for the one described be-
low. It shows how all the independent variables, on the whole, account for a very low per-
centage of variance—only 17%—and, after including the last block, only neighborhood
relations have a significant coefficient (p 5 0.0000). The hypothesis that sense of com-
munity is less strong in residential Grottaferrata than in the other two areas of town is
not confirmed.

Relations Between Sense of Community and Area

of Residence in Spoleto
With regard to Spoleto, the hypothesis was that the inhabitants of the peripheral work-
ing class area have less sense of community than the inhabitants of the historical center,
an area characterized by harmonious medieval architecture and known for its artistic
masterpieces.
Considering only the subjects residing in Spoleto, the analysis of variance showed a
significant difference (F (1,198) 5 85.61; p 5 0.001) between the inhabitants of the two
Spoleto areas. A multiple regression analysis was also carried out revealing that (see
Table 6) the sociodemographic variables account for about 19% of the variance, group
participation about 5%, neighborhood 18%, and the inclusion of the dummy variable
representing the Spoleto PEEP suburb accounts for another 10%, thus confirming the
hypothesis. Overall, by including the fourth block, the independent variables account for
a considerably high portion of variance (52%) of Sense of Community; the variables with
significant coefficients are the following: group participation (p 5 0.0014), neighbor-
hood relations (p 5 0.0000) and, as hypothesized, living in the outlying working class
area of town (Spol.PEEP; p 5 0.0000, with negative sign). Age has a coefficient with only
a tendency toward significance (p 5 0.07).

Sense of Community and Neighborhood Related

to Loneliness and Life Satisfaction
Regarding the third group of hypotheses, one was that sense of community and neigh-
borhood relations were related to loneliness and life satisfaction, but only in the two
smaller communities, Spoleto and Grottaferrata, and not in the Rome quarter.
46 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

Table 3 shows that for all groups many of the relations (Pearson’s r) between the
scales used are very significant. In particular, the relations between Life Satisfaction and
Loneliness, as well as between Life Satisfaction and Sense of Community, are significant
in all six areas. Therefore, the hypothesis of no relation between Sense of Community
and Life Satisfaction in a large city quarter is not confirmed. Neither is the hypothesis
confirmed of no relationship between Loneliness and Sense of Community in a large
city quarter: There is a significant relation between the two variables in all areas studied
except for central Grottaferrata. Instead, relations between Neighborhood and Loneli-
ness and between Neighborhood and Life Satisfaction are not significant either in the
Rome Casalbruciato quarter, as hypothesized, or in central Grottaferrata.
We also wanted to assess whether Sense of Community could be used to predict lev-
els of Loneliness and Life Satisfaction, even after having controlled for the contribution
of demographic variables and neighborhood relations. Therefore, two more multiple re-
gressions were carried out using the stepwise method, respectively, with Loneliness and
Life Satisfaction as dependent variables.
In the first block, demographic variables overall account for about 8% of the vari-
ance for Loneliness: People feeling the loneliest are those living without a spouse/part-
ner (p 5 0.01), those living for a shorter time in the same area (p 5 0.0001) and—slight-
ly—those with a smaller family (p 5 0.07) and those with more children (p 5 0.07). The
addition of group participation increases the variance by 2%, and this variable is highly
significant (p 5 0.0001); inclusion of Neighborhood Relations accounts for another 8%
and Sense of Community for another 8%. After including the latter variable, 26% of the
variance is accounted for and the significant independent variables are Sense of Com-
munity (p 5 0.0001), neighborhood (p 5 0.0001), years of residence (p 5 0.0001)—all
with negative sign—and age (the elderly feel more lonely) (p 5 0.04).
The sociodemographic variables considered here were poor predictors of life satis-
faction and, on the whole, only account for 5% of variance in the first block. Those more
satisfied with life are people living with their spouse/partner (p 5 0.0001), people living
in the same place for many years (p 5 0.0005) and people with more education (p 5
0.004). The inclusion of group participation in the second block only increases percent-
age variance by 0.4% and this coefficient shows only a tendency toward significance (p 5
0.058). The inclusion of Neighborhood Relations accounts for another 3.7% of variance
and the inclusion of Sense of Community accounts for 6.6%, making an overall 15.7% of
explained variance. In the last block, marital status (p 5 0.0008), educational level (p 5
0.003), Neighborhood Relations (p 5 0.005), and Sense of Community (p 5 0.0001) con-
tinue to be significant, while years of residence are no longer significant (p 5 0.11).
The possibility of distinguishing between a level of personal well-being and a social
level was also hypothesized; thus, one factor analysis was carried out considering total
scores of the four scales, using the principal component method. This analysis extract-
ed just one factor with an eigenvalue above 1 (equal to 2.08), which accounts for a con-
siderable amount of variance, i.e., 52%. All four scales have very high factor loadings on
this (Loneliness 5 20.79; Sense of Community 5 0.75; Life Satisfaction 5 0.71; Neigh-
borhood Relations 5 0.62). Because the percentage of explained variance of the second
factor was rather high (20.5%), with an eigenvalue of .82, two factors with varimax rota-
tion were also extracted. In the first factor the loadings were the following: Life Satis-
faction, .88; Loneliness, 2.76; Sense of Community, .49 and Neighborhood, .06. In the
second factor the loadings were the following: Neighborhood, .93; Sense of Communi-
ty, .58; Loneliness, 2.31 and Life Satisfaction, .02. On the whole, these results do not
confirm the possibility of distinguishing clearly between a level of personal well-being
 Sense of Community Referred to the Whole To w n • 47

and a social level. Certainly, Neighborhood Relations are found at a level of social func-
tioning, while Sense of Community seems to simultaneously encompass both a social and
a personal dimension.

DISCUSSION
First, the results will be synthesized and discussed by considering separately the three
groups of objectives that led us to conduct this study followed by more general comments.

Connection Between Neighborhood Social Relations

and Sense of Community and Their Relations
W ith Some Sociodemographic Variables
As we hypothesized, sense of community referred to a broad territory with established
administrative boundaries or to a large city quarter may be considered separately from
neighborhood relations; and this distinction is all the more pronounced the greater the
urban context. Their relationship is very strong, however, such that neighborhood rela-
tions emerge as the strongest predictor of sense of community. To confirm their inter-
connection, but not juxtaposition, some sociodemographic variables are related with
both, while some others are related only with Sense of Community or only with Neigh-
borhood Relations. At the zero-order level, both correlate with age, years of residence,
number of children, whether one lives with a spouse/partner, and with participation in
groups or associations. Instead, being a woman, having a low educational level and liv-
ing in a large family only influences the degree of neighboring. By considering all these
sociodemographic variables together, though, only length of residence, being a woman,
educational level, family size, and group participation help in predicting Neighborhood
Relations; on the other hand, Sense of Community is predicted by group participation,
whether one lives with a spouse/partner, and length of residence.
On the whole, there is agreement between our results and those of other studies,
confirming their crosscultural stability. It has already been demonstrated that Sense of
Community tends to increase with age (Davidson & Cotter, 1986, 1991; Prezza & Costan-
tini, 1998) and with years of residence (Chavis et al., 1986; Pretty et al., 1994, 1996), like
Neighborhood Relations (Buckner 1988; Robinson & Wilkinson, 1995; Skjaeveland et al.,
1996). Also, having school-age children increases Sense of Community (Hedger & Kelly,
1992) and Neighborhood Relations (Robinson & Wilkinson, 1995).
The importance of length of residence and—less—of age is reconfirmed in this re-
search. Sense of community ties with life-cycle phases are further underlined: Here it is
connected to marital status.
Other variables are only related to Neighborhood Relations: People with lower ed-
ucational levels have closer relationships with neighbors, as do women, as found in oth-
er studies (Buckner, 1988; Robinson & Wilkinson, 1995; Skjaeveland et al. 1996).

Relations Between Sense of Community,

W ith Reference to the Whole Town, and Area
of Residence in the To w n
Some of the hypotheses in this group were validated while others were not. As expect-
ed, in Spoleto we confirmed that the inhabitants of the PEEP suburb feel less like they
belong to the town; and the differences between the two areas studied are clear.
The hypothesis that inhabitants of the new up-market residential area of Grottafer-
48 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

rata, where there is a lot of commuting to Rome, would have an overall weak sense of
community, compared to the older areas of the town, was not confirmed. Differences
noted at the individual-item level in the scale point to how less participation to town tra-
ditions is offset by greater attachment to one’s home and neighborhood—a very green
and attractive place. The decision to move away from the big city to live in a smaller less
chaotic town closer to nature probably increases the sense of community for these in-
habitants. This result is somewhat in line with what Hummon (1992) reported on com-
munity satisfaction in the US, i.e., that it increases after moving to rural communities.
It was impossible to make a comparison between sense of community in the three
locations of Rome-Casalbruciato, Spoleto, and Grottaferrata (considered overall) be-
cause the method used for selecting the subjects was not suitable for such a comparative
analysis. It is, however, interesting to note that two out of the three Grottaferrata areas
have similar values to those found in the Rome quarter, even though Grottaferrata is a
rather small town where a higher degree of sense of community would be expected. This
may be due to the peculiar nature of this town, which is very close to a big city like Rome
and used as a dormitory—as shown by the high degree of commuting to the capital and
not just for work purposes. Even the rapid changes following the great amount of house
building in recent years may have contributed to lessening the sense of community of
those who have lived there for many years. Many respondents, who informally talked to
the interviewers once questionnaire administration was over, spoke of this fact, saying
that—for example—the town had become unrecognizable over the last few years, being
invaded by the Romans, etc. The only area in Grottaferrata where Sense of Community
is greater, compared to Rome-Casalbruciato, is the medieval center. In Spoleto, too,
sense of community is very high in its old medieval center, and it would be interesting
to conduct other studies to see whether it is just the particular nature of old Italian town
centers that favors a higher sense of community.
It must be stressed that, in Grottaferrata, all the variables considered in the study
predicted only 17% of the overall variance for Sense of Community, while the percent-
age variance in Spoleto is a high 52%. Not only is the level of Sense of Community sim-
ilar in the three areas of residence in Grottaferrata, but it is also poorly predicted by in-
dividual characteristics and is strongly correlated only with neighborhood relations. It
would appear that the very theory of Sense of Community is more suitable for under-
standing the phenomenon in more traditional territorial contexts undergoing slower
changes.

Sense of Community and Neighborhood Relations

Connected W ith Loneliness and Life Satisfaction
Contrary to our expectations, Sense of Community is linked to Life Satisfaction and to
Loneliness even in a big city suburb. Instead, Neighborhood Relations are related to Life
Satisfaction and Loneliness in four out of the six groups. As hypothesized, the relation-
ship was not found in the Rome-Casalbruciato area.
Our starting hypothesis was that the elements constituting the quality of life in a big
city, in the community domain, would not the same as those affecting the quality of life
in smaller urban areas. This hypothesis was formulated based on the lack of any relation
found by Prezza and Costantini (1998) between Sense of Community and Life Satisfac-
tion in a Naples quarter. The findings of this study do not support this hypothesis, but
they also do not negate it completely. In the Rome-Casalbruciato area Sense of Com-
 Sense of Community Referred to the Whole To w n • 49

munity is linked to personal well-being, but this is not the case for Neighborhood Rela-
tions. It is not easy to interpret the differences between the findings of this study and
those obtained by Prezza and Costantini (1998), even though it must be said that the
Casalbruciato quarter of Rome has more of a working-class population than the Vomero
quarter in Naples.
Although we considered Life Satisfaction and Loneliness as dependent variables in
some of our statistical analyses, we believe that the relationship between these variables
and Sense of Community and Neighborhood Relations are more complex and not uni-
directional. However, we would like to underline the fact that, even though Neighbor-
hood is a stronger predictor of Sense of Community, the latter helps in predicting both
Loneliness and Life Satisfaction, even after accounting for the influence of Neighbor-
hood Relations.
Finally, we hypothesized that the four variables considered here could, at a higher
level, be separated into two factors, one at the self-functioning level and the other at the
social-functioning level. Instead, the relationships between them are so close that they
converge into one factor. Nevertheless, with the extraction of two factors, as hypothe-
sized, Loneliness and Life Satisfaction load on the first factor and Neighborhood and
Sense of Community on the second. However, it is interesting that although the Neigh-
borhood is clearly located in the second factor, Sense of Community is found almost
spanning the two, as a “cusp between individuals and settings” (Kingston, Mitchell,
Florin, & Stevenson, 1999, p. 682).

CONCLUSIONS AND DIRECTIONS

FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
One of the contributions of this research was to show the importance of urban and so-
cial characteristics of the urban context for understanding and studying Sense of Com-
munity. In fact, these characteristics may be important not only for the level of Sense of
Community but also because they can modulate the relations between Sense of Com-
munity and other variables.
For example, it emerged here that neighborhood relations can be clearly distin-
guished from sense of community in a quarter of a large metropolis, while this is not
true in a small town. Further, the relation found between sense of community and so-
ciodemographic characteristics in a small town, which has been stable in recent years,
were not confirmed in a smaller town, located very near a metropolis and characterized,
in recent years, by a great influx of inhabitants from the nearby metropolis and by an in-
crease in commuting.
Another important aspect of this research is that it shows that the characteristics of
the area of residence can be related to sense of community referred to the whole town,
as emerged in Spoleto.
This leads to another issue that has not yet been explored deeply regarding sense of
community, i.e., is it possible to distinguish sense of community referred to a limited ter-
ritory (for example, a quarter), from that referred to a larger territory (for example, a
whole town)? And to what degree? And if it can be distinguished, which is most con-
nected with individual well-being? And how are they reciprocally influenced? Or, is what
Puddifoot (1995, 1996) affirmed true that independently of the explicit request made
to subjects to refer to the whole town when completing the Sense of Community Scale,
people answered not so much with reference to an established geographical territory but
50 • Journal of Community Psychology, January 2001

to a “mental” territory or “their territory.” This territory does not have clearly defined
limits and the concepts of home, area, and town overlap and at times becomes confused.
It would be interesting to conduct further research to clarify these aspects in terms of
both theory and application. For example, sense of community could be assessed more
than once in the same subjects by referring to various territories, i.e., block, quarter, or
section of the city and entire city. Several indicators of well-being could also be measured
at the same time.
Finally, our results indicate the importance to provide more information when re-
sults of sense of community research are reported, i.e., on the area subjects live, on the
area sense of community was referred to and on the larger urban context the area is part
of. This could improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying sense of com-
munity and could be of help in comparing different studies.

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