UC Irvine

Sociologists have documented associations between objective, socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods and residents’ health. Recently, psychologists have been interested in how environmental perceptions are similarly related to health. In this dissertation, objective socioeconomic status (SES) and subjective perceptions of neighborhood safety and perceptions of cohesion among neighbors were assessed for both their relations with daily aspects of well-being, and with indicators of cumulative physiological risk for later morbidity and mortality. In Study 1, relations between these neighborhood features and daily aspects of affective and physical well-being, as well as affective and physical reactivity to daily stressors, were examined. In Study 2, allostatic load, a composite measure of an individual’s physiological functioning, was assessed in relation to these neighborhood features. Lastly in Study 3, trait levels of emotionality – traits describing people’s general responses to social tensions – were examined as a possible source of variability, or risk and resiliency factors, in the context of these neighborhood features. Results indicated that poor neighborhood social climates (low SES, perceptions of low safety and perceptions of low cohesion) were related to poorer affective and physiological outcomes. Moreover, higher levels of positive emotionality buffered, and higher levels of negative emotionality exacerbated poor neighborhood social climates for physiological functioning. Although researchers have documented associations between neighborhood features and chronic health conditions, these results suggest that examining daily and physiological profiles of health in relation to neighborhood contexts may assist in identifying individuals ‘at risk’ for later health problems.