Neighborhood and sense of community

In the context of a larger study focused on the development of an instrument to measure sense of community, respondents were asked to identify components (e.g., family, friends, church, neighborhood) that they believe comprise their community. Initial data analysis suggested a potentially important division between respondents who did and did not include “neighborhood” in their definition of their community. These two groups then were compared on the major variables of the larger study: Actual sense of community, ideal sense of community, community satisfaction, and community competence. Results suggest that respondents with a higher ideal sense of community were significantly less likely to identify “neighborhood” as a component of their community; those whose actual sense of community, community satisfaction, and community competence were higher were significantly more likely to include “neighborhood” among the components. The tendency not to consider one's neighborhood important in assessing ideal sense of community, but, rather, to actually consider it an important feature of one's day-to-day sense of community is discussed in light of some suggestions that one's neighborhood has become a less important element in developing or maintaining one's sense of community.