Understanding sense of neighbourhood community in Korean adolescents: its relation to adolescent well-being and the role of parents

Abstract

This study examined whether Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community would be related to their peer relations and self-esteem and the role of parent-related variables (e.g., mother's sense of neighbourhood community and perceived relationship closeness with parents) among a sample of 229 Korean adolescents and their mothers. Hierarchical regression analyses showed a positive association of Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community with peer relations and self-esteem. In addition, having a close relationship with parents emerged as the ultimate predictor of their sense of neighbourhood community above and beyond the variance accounted for by socio-demographic characteristics and school adaptation. Results suggest that parents play a significant role in Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community. Fostering close relationships with parents and improving mothers' sense of neighbourhood community may be particularly effective for strengthening Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community.

Keywords::

• neighbourhood
• sense of community
• Korean adolescents
• peer relations
• self-esteem

Introduction

As boundaries of children's social world begin to expand beyond family during teen years, forming a sense of social and psychological connection to various social groups becomes an important developmental task for adolescents (Fuligni & Flook, 2005). While research in this area has given extensive attention to peers (e.g. Oberle, Schonert-Reichl, & Thomson, 2010) and school (e.g. Catalano, Haggerty, Oesterle, Fleming, & Hawkins, 2004), sense of connection to a neighbourhood community during adolescence remains relatively understudied. Considering that a neighbourhood community is increasingly more recognised as an important developmental context for fostering a meaningful sense of connection among adolescents (e.g. Albanesi, Cicognani, & Zani, 2007; Evans, 2007), more research in this topic is warranted.

In studying how socially and psychologically connected individuals feel towards various communities that they are part of, the work of McMillan and Chavis (1986) on the sense of community has been by far the most influential. While it is possible that a community may be that of a neighbourhood (e.g. Pretty, Conroy, Dugay, Fowler, & Williams, 1996), school (e.g. Royal & Rossi, 1996) or an online community (e.g. Reich, 2010), McMillan and Chavis describe sense of community 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). Four elements comprise this concept: membership, influence, integration and fulfilment of needs and shared emotional connection. Membership is a feeling of being part of one's community and that one has a place in it. Influence is an awareness that the community affects one's life, and one also makes a difference in the community through cooperation with other members. Integration and fulfilment of needs refer to a sense that the community fulfils one's needs. Finally, shared emotional connection is a perception of closeness, bonding, and shared values among members of a community.

Using McMillan and Chavis' (1986) concept of sense of community, this study sought to expand the existing research on adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community by examining its relationship with adolescents' well-being and what would promote their sense of neighbourhood community among a sample of 229 teenagers in South Korea. Based on their questionnaire responses, we first examined whether adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community was associated with their social and psychological well-being as measured by the quality of peer relations and self-esteem. We then explored the role of parents by examining whether and how mothers' sense of neighbourhood community and adolescents' perceived closeness with parents predicted adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community by using hierarchical multiple regression analyses.

Korean adolescents and sense of neighbourhood community

Recently, the Korean Educational Development Institute and Korean Youth Policy Institute issued a media briefing related to ‘capacity for social interaction’ among Korean adolescents, which is an indicator of an ability to participate in one's community and to live harmoniously with neighbours from diverse backgrounds (Hwang, 2011). The briefing was made based on the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement in 2009 [see Schulz, Ainley, Fraillon, Kerr, and Losito for ICCS (2009) International Report]. A total of 140,600 students in eighth grade from 38 countries had participated in the study. According to this briefing, an overall capacity for social interaction score among Korean adolescents was .31 out of 1, placing Korea in the 35th place out of 36 nations. For sub-dimensions of this index, such as relational orientation and community cooperation, Korea hit the very bottom.

These are startling results as these suggest that compared to teenagers in other countries, Korean adolescents may lag behind in terms of fulfilling a developmentally important task of developing a sense of social connectedness to their community. Korean experts in the field of education attributed this problem to overemphasis on individual success and college admission by parents and school rather than values of togetherness and collective well-being (Hwang, 2011). While Korea rapidly advanced its way up into an industrialised society in less than three decades, a phenomenon of ‘examination hell’ accompanied by fierce competition among peers has naturally become part of the social and educational climate in Korea [see Lee and Larson (2000) for description of this phenomenon]. In this context, the result from the ICCS regarding Korean teenagers' low performance in social connectedness is perhaps an expected outcome rather than surprising. Despite the alarming evidence that Korean adolescents may have a relatively lower sense of neighbourhood community, the body of relevant literature is very small to this date. Overall, research on Korean adolescents' sense of community has been conducted in the context of youth participation in community services, events, and programmes, with a focus on examining whether youth participation is related to greater sense of community (e.g. G.N. Park, 2009; J.S. Park, 2010). In this context, this study is the first to actually examine how Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community may influence their psychosocial well-being, such as peer relations and self-esteem. In addition, this study sought to draw initial suggestions for improving sense of neighbourhood community by exploring the role of parents.

Adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community and its association with social and psychological well-being

Research suggests that sense of neighbourhood community is a developmentally relevant concept for adolescents (e.g. Pretty et al., 1996). As adolescence is a period during which teenagers develop psychosocial ties to and social understanding of the world outside, achieving a positive sense of neighbourhood community can be viewed as a critical developmental task for teenagers. In order to understand a developmental significance that sense of neighbourhood community has for teenagers, it is helpful to briefly explain associations with important tasks during this period, such as forming a social identity (Erikson, 1968; Marcia, 1993) and achieving social connectedness (Guerra & Bradshaw, 2008).

According to Tajfel (1972), a social identity is ‘the individual's knowledge that he belongs to certain social groups together with some emotional or value significance to him of his group membership’ (p. 292). In the context of a growing significance of the outer social environment during adolescence, an increase in capacity for complex and abstract cognitive abilities allows and leads them to engage in social identity work, which is to find a psychologically meaningful sense of connection to social groups that they are part of (Fuligni & Flook, 2005). Furthermore, research shows that how adolescents make sense of who they are in relation to others are closely intertwined with the neighbourhood community they live in (Pretty, 2002).

According to Guerra and Bradshaw (2008), social connectedness is one of the five core developmental competencies (i.e. positive sense of self, self-control, decision-making skills, moral system of beliefs) that adolescents should acquire. It broadly refers to a psychological state of belonging where individual youth perceive that they and others are cared for, acknowledged, trusted and empowered within a given social context (Eccles & Gootman, 2002; Whitlock, 2006), such as family, peer group, school or community. This state of belonging involves both feeling cared for and caring about the social environment. Thus, sense of neighbourhood community is a developmentally meaningful indicator of how a teenager perceives that he or she is socially connected to his/her neighbourhood community.

Research shows that the lack of social connectedness is closely linked with adolescents' problem behaviours. For instance, lack of feeling connected to school was associated with violence (e.g. Catalano et al., 2004), early sexual encounter (e.g. Resnick et al., 1997), and loneliness (e.g. Pretty, Andrewes, & Collett, 1994). In addition, adolescents with weak family and peer attachments were more aggressive than their peers (Laible, Carlo, & Raffaelli, 2000). The literature, however, is limited in two ways. First, a neighbourhood community remains understudied as a key social environment that adolescents possibly identify with and develop sense of social and psychological connection. Second, positive outcomes, such as social and psychological well-being, have been less explored in adolescent research as opposed to risk or problem behaviours. In light of these limitations, this study examined Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community and how it is related to their social and psychological well-being as measured by the quality of peer relations and self-esteem.

Achieving positive peer relations and self-concept reflects two of the desirable developmental outcomes during adolescence. As teenagers spend increasingly more time with their peers (Larson & Verma, 1999), peers take on a greater meaning and importance for them (Steinberg, 2008). In this context, positive peer relations are significantly related to their social well-being. A positive sense of oneself is also a desirable outcome during this period. Research shows that low self-esteem during adolescence is linked with poor health and criminal behaviour during adulthood (Trzesniewski et al., 2006). Given that self-esteem is considered a primary component of one's self-concept (Rosenberg, 1979), we examine self-esteem as an indicator of adolescents' self-concept. According to Tajfel (1981), how individuals feel about themselves are informed largely by their sense of membership to a social environment that they belong to. As such, it follows that adolescents who feel that they belong and are connected to their neighbourhood community will espouse higher levels of self-esteem.

Role of parents in adolescents' sense of community

The potent role of parents in developing social connectedness during adolescence is well documented across social settings (e.g. school and peer groups). For instance, research suggests that a close relationship with parents provides a template for adolescents to form healthy attachments with their peers (e.g. Dishion, Patterson, Stoolmiller, & Skinner, 1991; Furman, Simon, Shaffer, & Bouchey, 2002; Way & Chen, 2000). The evidence linking parental supportiveness and adolescents' positive perception of school is also strong (e.g. Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbusch, & Darling, 1992; Wentzel, 1998). However, parental influence on how adolescents relate to their neighbourhood community is less known. Particularly, no research to date has examined how parents might be related to their adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community.

Social learning and attachment theories provide a conceptual basis for considering the role of parents in connection to adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community in this study. According to social learning theory (Gage & Berliner, 1979), socialisation occurs when children learn attitudes, values and behaviours through modelling and imitating important figures in their social world. For example, if a child saw his/her mother expressing a negative opinion about having to participate in their neighbourhood event or a town meeting, or making unfriendly remarks about the community, then this child may think that it is not important to participate in the community and could continue to hold this opinion about it. A couple of recent studies offer support for such effect of parent socialisation. Min and Kong (2007) found that Korean parents' hostility towards a certain region was positively associated with adolescents' negative regional stereotype. Moreover, in a US-based study by Castelli, Zogmaister, and Tomelleri (2009), white mothers' racial attitudes were a significant predictor of their children's racial attitudes. Drawing from social learning theory, we examined whether and how mothers' sense of neighbourhood community predicts adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community.

Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) forms another conceptual basis. It posits that individuals are genetically prewired to develop social attachments, and the type of emotional connection that children make with primary attachment figures (usually parents) forms the blueprint for later relationships across multiple social contexts. These early attachments lead to internal working models of social relationships that guide both behaviour and feelings in subsequent social interactions. Related previous work shows that adolescents who enjoy supportive and close relationships with parents are competent and well connected in interpersonal as well as social settings, such as peer group and school (e.g. Collins & Steinberg, 2006; Steinberg et al., 1992; Wentzel, 1998). A question remains, however, whether such connectedness to parents would also be linked to how adolescents feel about their neighbourhood community. Thus, we sought to shed light on this relationship by examining whether the level of support and closeness perceived by adolescents in their relationship with parents would predict their sense of neighbourhood community.

Other considerations

Previous studies suggest that there are factors other than parents that may influence adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community, such as younger age (Pretty et al., 1996) and their school adaptation (Royal & Rossi, 1996). In a study by National Youth Policy Institute (2004), school played a significant role in Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community through establishing a partnership with community organisations. The study also found that the sense of neighbourhood community mediated the effect of school on adolescents' identity. Furthermore, Royal and Rossi (1996) found that high school students with higher grades and school adjustment scores had greater sense of school community than their less adjusted peers with lower grades. These findings suggest that school may be an important context in which adolescents develop sense of neighbourhood community.

Although the importance of school in adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community has gained support from research, the role of parents remains unknown. In view of this gap, we explored the role of parents in adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community by examining the extent to which mothers' sense of neighbourhood community and adolescents' perceived closeness with their parents predict their sense of neighbourhood community. Given the role that school adaptation plays in adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community, we took this variable into account in our analysis.

Research questions

Based on the review of relevant research in this area, we formulated two research questions as follows:

• Is sense of neighbourhood community associated with the quality of peer relations and self-esteem among Korean adolescents?

• Are mothers' sense of neighbourhood community and adolescents' perceived closeness with parents associated with Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community?

Method

Procedure

The data used for this study were collected as part of a larger study designed to compare Korean and interethnic/racial families in Korea. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the institutions with which both authors are affiliated. A feasibility study was conducted in March 2010 with a convenience sample of five adolescents and five mothers to check if the questionnaire items were compatible. A few minor comments were given by the participants regarding the formatting issues (e.g. font size and tables) and unclear sentences, and the questionnaire was revised accordingly. The language of the questionnaire was Korean.

Data were collected between May and December in 2010 from public schools and youth community centres after parental consent was received. Depending on the school/centre and teacher preferences, research assistants then either visited schools and centres in person to administer surveys or mailed the questionnaires directly to teachers who had agreed to participate in the study. The teachers had their class complete the questionnaire and sent us the completed ones via mail along with adolescents' assent forms. For adolescents whose mothers had also agreed to complete the questionnaire at the time of parental consent, we asked them to deliver the questionnaire to their mother and to bring back the completed questionnaire to their teacher in an envelope provided. On the consent form, participants were informed that the information gathered for this study would be kept confidential and their participation would be voluntary.

A total of 286 completed adolescent questionnaires were received (154 from Seoul/Kyunggi Province and 132 from Kyungsang Province). Because we used in this study only the data where both an adolescent child and his/her mother had completed the questionnaire, the current sample consisted of 229 pairs of adolescents and their mothers.

Sample characteristics

All adolescents in the sample indicated that both of their parents are Korean. Their mean age was 12.64 (SD = 1.57), ranging between 11 and 15 years. There were more girls (n = 146) than boys (n = 83) in the sample. About 26% of the mothers and 37% of the fathers received college or graduate education. Sixty-five per cent of the mothers and 45% of the fathers finished high school. Given that approximately 66% of the 2500 adult respondents who participated in Korea National Household Survey of 2010 (Ministry of Gender Equality & Family, 2010) indicated that they had received at least high school education, we can infer that the parents of the adolescents in this study are slightly more educated than the national average.

Variables and measures

Adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community

We used the Sense of Community Index developed by McMillan and Chavis (1986) and translated by Lee (2006) into Korean language for Korean American immigrants in her dissertation research. It is a four-point Likert-type scale (0: not at all true; 3: completely true), which consists of 24 items assessing four components of sense of community: (1) membership, (2) influence, (3) integration and fulfilment of needs and (4) shared emotional connections. In the questionnaire, we asked adolescents to respond to each item thinking about their neighbourhood. Sample items included, ‘I know most of my neighbours in my neighbourhood’, ‘Being a member of my neighbourhood is part of my identity’, and ‘Being a member of this neighbourhood makes me feel good’. The higher mean score indicated greater sense of community (possible range, 0.00–3.00). The Cronbach's alpha in this study was .95.

Quality of peer relations

A peer relations subscale from the school adaptation measure developed by Kim (2002) was used to assess this variable. It was developed for Korean students at all grade levels and successfully validated using a stratified sample of 4271 students. A Cronbach's alpha for this subscale was .80 in Kim's validation study. Using a scale ranging from 1 (‘not at all true’) to 6 (‘very true’), adolescents in this study responded to the following five items: ‘I get along well with my friends at school’, ‘I have many friends at school whom I can open up and talk to’, ‘There are many friends who will help me when I have a hard time’, ‘I am popular among my school classmates’ and ‘There are times when I feel isolated from my classmates’ which was reverse coded. A mean score was created by summing these scores and then taking the mean of the sum score, indicating that a higher score reflected more positive peer relations (possible range, 1–6). The Cronbach's alpha in this study was .78.

Self-esteem

To measure adolescents' self-esteem in this study, we used the 10-item scale developed by Rosenberg (1979). The version used in this study was a Korean language version, which was successfully validated by Lee, Nam, Lee, Lee, and Lee (2009). The internal consistency of the translated scale in the study by Lee et al. ranged from α = .75 to .85. The scale used a four-point Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Five of the 10 items were reverse scored, and a greater mean score reflected higher self-esteem (possible range, 0–3). The Cronbach's alpha in this study was .82.

Mothers' sense of neighbourhood community

The same version of Sense of Community Index (McMillan & Chavis, 1986) used for measuring adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community was used to assess mothers' sense of neighbourhood community. The Cronbach's alpha was .94 for Sense of Community Index among Korean mothers in this study.

Adolescents' perceived closeness with parents

We used the cohesion subscale of the Family Adaptation and Cohesion Evaluation Scales II inventory (Olson, Sprenkle, & Russell, 1979) to assess adolescents' perceived closeness with parents. A Korean version validated by Lee, Seung, and Rhee (1998) with a sample of 60 adults was used in this study. The Cronbach's alpha in Lee et al.'s (1998) study was .83. Using a scale ranging from 1 (‘almost never’) to 5 (‘almost always’), students responded to 10 questions such as ‘My mother [father] and I feel very close to each other’, ‘My mother [father] and I are supportive of each other during difficult times’ and ‘My mother [father] and I avoid each other at home’. We created an index variable by calculating a mean score of the sum of the mean scores for closeness with mother and father. The higher mean score indicated greater perceived closeness with parents (possible range, 1.00–5.00). The Cronbach's alpha was .79 for closeness with mother and .82 for closeness with father in this study.

School adaptation

Three subscales (e.g. relationship with teachers, classroom experience and the extent to which adolescents comply with school rules) of the school adaptation measure developed by Kim (2002) were used to assess an overall level of school adaptation among Korean middle and high school students in this study. Each scale consists of five six-point Likert type items (1: not at all true; 6: very much true). An index variable for school adaptation was created by adding up the mean scores of each subscale. The higher score indicated greater school adaptation (possible range, 1.00–6.00). The Cronbach's alpha of the scale (i.e. three subscales combined) in this study was .91.

Sociodemographic variables

Demographic variables included adolescents' self-reported age and gender and mother's and father's level of education as reported by mothers. Education was a six-level categorical variable (e.g. 1 = no education, 3 = middle school and 6 = graduate school or more). Because we did not ask adolescents to report their household income, we used the index of economic strain as a proxy for economic status of the family based on the reports from mothers. Conger et al. (1990) used this measure to successfully assess economic hardship among families with adolescent children in the USA. Participants were asked to report the level of difficulty in paying bills (from 1 = no difficulty to 4 = a great deal of difficulty) and how much money was left over at the end of each month (from 1 = some to 3 = not enough to make ends meet). The other component of economic strain involved behavioural adaptations to hardship whether they had done any of the following as a result of economic problems during the past year: (1) sold possessions or cashed in life insurance, (2) postponed major purchases, (3) postponed medical care, (4) borrowed money from friends or relatives, (5) received government assistance, (6) filed for or taken bankruptcy or (7) fallen behind in paying bills. The summative index was created by adding the yes responses (yes = 1, no = 0). Because of differences in scale, all three indicators of economic strain (paying bills, money left over and behavioural adaptations) were standardised and then summed to construct a single index of overall economic strain. The Cronbach's alpha of the scale in this study was .77.

Data analysis

Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine whether (1) adolescents' sense of community predicted their quality of peer relations and self-esteem and (2) mothers' sense of community and adolescents' perceived closeness with their parents predicted Korean adolescents' sense of community above and beyond the effect of school adaptation. Blocks of variables were entered into the model to allow analysis of their contributions after controlling for previously entered variables. Sociodemographic characteristics of the sample (i.e. age, gender, mother's and father's level of education and economic strain reported by mother) were entered in step 1 followed by predictor variables in subsequent steps. For our second research question, school adaptation was included in step 2, followed by mothers' neighbourhood sense of community in step 3 and, finally, adolescents' perceived closeness with parents was entered in step 4. Regressions were checked for multicollinearity using variance inflation factor (VIF). The value of VIF did not exceed 1.20 for any of the variables, thus indicating that there was no problem of multicollinearity.

Results

Descriptive statistics for key variables

Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for key variables in this study. The mean of sense of community was higher among adolescents (M = 1.19, SD = .60) than their mothers (M = 1.02, SD = .53). The mean of quality of peer relations was 4.70 (SD = .90) out of a possible maximum score of 6. The mean of self-esteem was 2.00 (SD = .49) out of a possible maximum score of 3.

Research Question 1

=

Is sense of community associated with the quality of relations with peers and self-esteem among Korean adolescents? Table 1 Descriptive statistics for key variables (n = 229). Variables Range Possible range Mean (SD) Adolescents' sense of community .04–2.92 0–3 1.19 (.60) Quality of peer relations 1.00–6.00 1–6 4.70 (.90) Self-esteem .40–3.00 0–3 2.00 (.49) Mothers' sense of community .04–2.67 0–3 1.02 (.53) School adaptation 2.35–5.80 1–6 4.43 (.73) Perceived closeness with parents 2.05–5.00 1–5 3.72 (.64)

Table 2 presents hierarchical regression models of adolescents' sense of community predicting the quality of peer relations and self-esteem. Sociodemographic variables were entered in step 1, producing an adjusted R² of .11 (p < .001) for the quality of peer relations and self-esteem, separately. According to Model 2 for both variables, entering sense of community increased an adjusted R² to .15 and .14, respectively. Sense of community significantly predicted both the quality of peer relations (B = .24, p < .01) and self-esteem (B = .19, p < .01).

Research Question 2

=

Are mothers' sense of community and adolescents' perceived closeness with parents associated with Korean adolescents' sense of community? Table 2 Hierarchical regression model of sense of community predicting the quality of peer relations and self-esteem among Korean adolescents (n = 229). The quality of peer relations Self-esteem Model 1 Model 2 Model 1 Model 2 Dependent variable B B B B Sociodemographic variables Age  − .10  − .02  − .19**  − .13 Gender  − .07  − .08  − .00  − .01 Mother education  − .05  − .04  − .20*  − .19* Father education .32*** .30** .36*** .34*** Economic strain  − .11  − .10  − .11  − .10 Sense of community – .24** – .19** R^2 .13 .18 .13 .16 Adjusted R^2 .11 .15 .11 .14 F 5.58*** 6.81*** 5.72*** 6.09** ΔR^2 .13 .05 .13 .03 ΔF 5.58*** 11.40** 5.72*** 7.02** *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Table 3 presents hierarchical regression models predicting sense of community among Korean adolescents. As shown in Model 1, sociodemographic variables were entered in step 1 to predict adolescents' neighbourhood sense of community, producing an adjusted R² of .13 (p = .00). Younger age (B = − .35, p < .001) was the only significant predictor of adolescents' sense of community. In other words, younger adolescents were significantly more likely to report greater sense of community. An entry of school adaptation in step 2 produced a significant incremental increase in R² (R² = .17, p < .001). Younger age continued to exert the strongest influence on adolescents' sense of community (B = − .29, p < .001). School adaptation (B = .22, p < .01) was the next significant predictor of adolescents' sense of community. Model 3 accounted for a total of 20% of the variance in adolescents' sense of community. In this case, the addition of mothers' sense of community in step 3 into the model resulted in a significant increase in R² (ΔR² = .05) even after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics of the sample and adolescents' school adaptation, which is a known predictor of adolescents' sense of community. Adolescents with positive school adjustment (B = .19, p < .01) and adolescents with mothers reporting more sense of community (B = .23, p < .001) were more likely to report greater sense of community. However, younger age (B = − .27, p < .001) continued to be the strongest predictor of adolescent sense of community above and beyond the other variables in this model.

Table 3 Hierarchical regression models predicting sense of community among Korean adolescents (n = 229).

	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4
	B	B	B	B
Sociodemographic variables
Age	− .35***	− .29***	− .27***	− .18*
Gender	.06	.08	.09	.12
Mother education	− .05	− .02	.00	.01
Father education	.08	.03	− .00	− .01
Economic strain	− .06	− .03	− .02	− .01
School adaptation	–	.22**	.19**	.12
Mothers' sense of community	–	–	.23***	.21**
Closeness with parents	–	–	–	.26**
R^2	.13	.17	.23	.27
Adjusted R^2	.11	.15	.20	.24
F	5.88***	6.63**	7.90***	8.81**
ΔR^2	.13	.04	.05	.05
ΔF	7.17***	8.33**	13.19***	9.87**

*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

In the final step, adolescents' perceived closeness with parents was entered into the model, which emerged as the strongest predictor of adolescents' sense of community (B = .26, p < .01) followed by mothers' sense of community (B = .21, p < .01). School adaptation (B = .12, p < .05) was no longer significant. The effect of younger age remained significant (B = − .18, p < .05) though its magnitude was reduced. Model 4 explained 27% of the variance in adolescents' sense of community. Overall, both mothers' sense of community and closeness with parents predicted Korean adolescents' sense of community above and beyond the variance accounted for by school adaptation and sociodemographic variables.

Discussion

Although achieving sense of neighbourhood community is one of the important developmental tasks during adolescence, very few attempts have been made to understand this task. In this study, we sought to shed light on this understudied variable by examining whether it was associated with desirable outcomes during adolescence, such as positive peer relations and self-esteem among 229 Korean adolescents and the role of parents in their sense of neighbourhood community. Our analysis revealed that adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community showed significantly positive relationships with peer relations and self-esteem. Also, consistent with research on American adolescents (e.g. Royal & Rossi, 1996), being a good and socially well-rounded student in school played a significant role in Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community. However, when parent factors were taken into account, school adaptation was no longer influential, suggesting that parents may matter more than their school life for Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community.

As mentioned earlier, the concern about a relatively weaker sense of collective we-ness among Korean adolescents is growing in Korean society. It certainly calls for some serious reflection on what kind of next generation Korean society wants to produce and how to go about reaching that goal. We believe that this study can serve as a guide in the process as its findings clearly illustrate that sense of neighbourhood community is an important attribute to be fostered during adolescence, linked with adolescents' healthy outcomes. Furthermore, this study offers preliminary suggestions that might be promising for enhancing Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community. In the following paragraph, we discuss key findings of this study and make suggestions for future research.

By examining how adolescents feel about and identify with their neighbourhood community, this study expands the existing research on the importance of social connectedness during adolescence. Unlike connectedness to family, peer and school (e.g. Catalano et al., 2004; Dishion et al., 1991; Furman et al., 2002; Oberle et al., 2010; Steinberg et al., 1992; Way & Chen, 2000; Wentzel, 1998), neighbourhood community has previously received very little attention. As such, its significant association found in this study with positive peer relations and self-esteem further justifies the developmental relevance and importance of paying attention to adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community. Specifically, by showing that adolescents who feel good about and are connected to their neighbourhood community are more likely to get along with their peers better and feel more positive about themselves, this study highlights that the sense of neighbourhood community is an important attribute that should be nurtured in adolescents. It also serves as evidence for the positive role of sense of neighbourhood community in adolescents' healthy development.

Our second research question then asked what would promote adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community. Although previous work shows that adolescents who are securely attached to parents are also competent and well connected in interpersonal as well as social settings, such as peer group and school (e.g. Collins & Steinberg, 2006; Furman et al., 2002; Steinberg et al., 1992; Wentzel, 1998), a question has remained whether and how family connectedness would be related to neighbourhood community as well. In this study, we found that having a close, cohesive relationship with parents was the ultimate predictor of Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community beyond the variance explained by adolescents' sociodemographic characteristics and school adaptation. In line with attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969), this finding illustrates that the level of intimacy and support perceived by adolescents in their current relationship with parents has a significant impact on how connected they feel towards their neighbourhood community at this time.

On a practical level, these findings suggest that one approach to improving Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community might be to enhance the quality of their relationships with parents by fostering intimacy and support at home. We suggest that family time may be a promising context for promoting sense of happiness and unity as a family. Although there is no study yet in South Korea that examined the role of family time, the US-based research on family time suggests a potential link between spending time as a family and positive outcomes among adolescents. For instance, the amount of time spent eating meals, watching TV, or participating in active leisure or religious activities collectively as a family was significantly associated with a warmer, more loving and more intimate adolescent child–parent relationship (Crouter, Head, McHale, & Tucker, 2004). Also, in a study of 99,462 adolescents in the USA, the odds of reporting family support, positive family communication and parental involvement in school were three times higher for those who reported eating five to seven family dinners per week compared to those who reported eating one or fewer family dinners per week even after adjusting for demographics and additional effects of family cohesion variables (Fulkerson et al., 2006). Thus, programmes designed to provide guidance for families to spend time together in the context of leisure activities or family mealtime by actually offering opportunities might be helpful for improving parent–adolescent relationships. Over the recent years, the awareness about the benefits of having a family mealtime particularly has grown in South Korea (Yoon, 2010). As an initial effort to improve positive character development among Korean adolescents in the context of family, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has also published an educational leaflet this year, targeting Korean parents as an instrument to advocate for the value of family mealtime and to educate how parents might actually implement the practice in their daily family lives to increase family cohesion. Effectiveness of such effort has not been evaluated yet. It might be a fruitful area of research to examine the relationships among family time, parent–adolescent relationship and adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community.

In addition to having a close relationship with parents, mothers' sense of neighbourhood community emerged as the second most significant predictor of Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community. While adding to existing research on transmission of social perceptions and attitudes within the family (e.g. Castelli et al., 2009; Min & Kong, 2007), this finding also highlights that the quality of mothers' psychosocial ties to the neighbourhood community is powerful enough to make a difference in Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community. In light of this finding, a practical advice for those who are concerned with Korean adolescent children's weak sense of neighbourhood community might be to devise ways of promoting Korean mothers' positive sense of neighbourhood community. A questionnaire study by Rhee and Chae (2010) with 232 residents of four large, high-rise apartment complexes in South Korea (Note: over 79% of the residents were parents) offers insights into what might be helpful for promoting Korean mothers' sense of neighbourhood community. In Rhee and Chae's study, residents in complexes where resident associations shared public space for recreation or sports or opportunities to participate in various complex-level social events were available for residents reported greater sense of neighbourhood community than those who did not live in such complexes. Thus, organising resident groups or recreational events at the smaller level of a complex or a block rather than at the city level appears to be a promising strategy to promote Korean mothers' sense of neighbourhood community.

As mentioned earlier, an existing small body of research on Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community focused on the role of youth participation in community services, events and programmes in adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community without considering the potential role of other important socialisation agents in their lives (e.g. G.N. Park, 2009; J.S. Park, 2010). This study is one of the first to address the previous limitations in research by examining the role of parents in Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community. A reasonable next step in research might be to identify various mechanisms through which parents (e.g. a close parent–adolescent relationship and mothers' sense of neighbourhood community) operate in fostering adolescents' positive sense of neighbourhood community.

Finally, consistent with previous research (e.g. Pretty et al., 1996), being younger also emerged as a significant predictor of Korean adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community. Specifically, younger adolescents were significantly more likely to have greater sense of neighbourhood community. Because the number of school hours significantly increases in Korea once adolescents enter middle and high schools (Statistics Korea, 2009), they spend notably more time in school than they would if they were still in elementary school. Compared to middle and high school years, there is significantly less academic pressure during elementary years, which allows younger adolescents (in fifth and sixth grades) to explore and spend more time out, socialising with peers or doing leisure activities in their neighbourhood settings than in school. In addition, Korean students typically attend elementary schools in their neighbourhood located within walking distance, whereas for middle and high schools, it is not rare for students to travel outside the boundaries of their neighbourhood to attend school. Thus, it is possible that older adolescents identify less with the neighbourhood community in which they spend little time as opposed to their school. Given these contextual changes during transition to middle school, it might be useful to examine what specific changes are related to their sense of neighbourhood community. Also, given the possibility that the parental influence may be greater for younger adolescents than older adolescents (e.g. Buhrmester, 1996), it might be worthwhile for future studies to see if the role of parents in adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community would change as a function of their age using a larger sample of adolescents from each age group.

Results of this study should be interpreted with careful consideration of the following limitations. First, the cross-sectional design of this study prevents us from making a conclusive statement about the causal relationship between adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community and the variables examined. Second, this study is based on a sample of Korean adolescents, and thus, the generalisability of its findings is limited for adolescents in other parts of the world. It might be worthwhile for future research to replicate these findings with samples of adolescents from other countries. In addition, the sampling method and our sample size (n = 229) do not allow for generalising our findings to the population of Korean adolescents. One must be aware of the possibility that analyses with a nationally representative sample may yield different results.

Despite the limitations, this study contributes to the existing research on social connectedness during adolescence by examining adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community, an understudied but important developmental attribute to be fostered during this period. All in all, the results of this study provide evidence that sense of neighbourhood community is related to adolescents' healthy development as indicated by positive peer relations and self-esteem, and the role of parents in promoting adolescents' sense of neighbourhood community is significantly greater than their school life. These findings suggest that it might be particularly effective to target parents as a promising agent of change to address the societal concern over Korean adolescents' weak sense of neighbourhood community.

Acknowledgements

Support for this research came from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NFR-2011-413-350-20110028) in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in South Korea. It was also supported by the New Faculty Research Settlement Grants from Seoul National University (SNU) and Kyungpook National University Research Fund 2010.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Grace H. Chung

Grace H. Chung is an associate professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at SNU and is affiliated with Research Institute of Human Ecology at SNU Email: [email protected].

Ji Young Lim

Ji Young Lim is an assistant professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at KNU and is also affiliated with Center for Beautiful Aging at KNU Email: [email protected].