Resident interaction and social well-being in an oil boomtown in western North Dakota

Abstract

Previous studies on the social well-being of residents living in energy boomtowns focus primarily on demographic characteristics of residents. These studies do not consider that there could be a relationship between residents’ social well-being and whether they interact with new residents moving into their community. The current study includes a measure of interaction with new residents as it examines five dimensions of the social well-being of residents living in an oil boomtown in western North Dakota. Surveys were distributed door-to-door to residents living in Williston North Dakota during the fall of 2015. Research findings show that people who reported that they interact with new residents moving into their community felt safe from crime and violence in their community; felt more socially integrated in their community; had high levels of community trust and community satisfaction, and believed that they could count on their neighbors. These findings are important because they highlight the significance of social interaction in communities that experience rapid population growth resulting from increased energy production.

Keywords:

• Rapid population growth
• Social well-being
• Bakken oil region

Notes

1 Cronbach’s alpha is a measure of internal consistency reliability (Osborne, 2008). This score tells us if we are actually measuring what we are hoping to measure. A Cronbach’s alpha score of .70 or greater indicates an acceptable level of internal consistency.

2 The Mann–Whitney U is a nonparametric test often used to compare the means of two groups when the outcome variable is not normally distributed (Field, 2009).

3 In order for a variable to be considered statistically significant, it has to reach the .05 alpha level when it is included in a statistical model. If a variable is deemed statistically significant at the .05 alpha level, that means that it is an important variable within a statistical model when compared to all other variables included in a statistical model (Field, 2009).