Sense of Community in Taiwan and its Relationships with the Residential Environment

Sense of community is an important topic in community research and applied social psychology. Despite extensive studies on SOC in North America and Europe, literature about the nature and antecedents of SOC in East Asia is scarce. This study uses a national probability sample to investigate SOC in Taiwan, suggesting a two-factor structure of SOC, composed of community affection and community belongingness. Residential variables conducive to community isolation are found to correlate positively with community belongingness but negatively with community affection.