Construction and validation of place attachment scale among the Residents of Tabriz

Place attachment is among multidimensional constructs that has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of urban sociology. Place attachment is a symbolic communication with place that individuals form through giving shared emotional and cultural meaning to a special place. The city is an important place that residents can make attachments to it. The purpose of this article is to construct and validate a place attachment scale and a city was selected as a place to test it. This survey research was conducted among Tabrizi residents who were15-75 years old, using a multi-stage cluster sampling method. Sample size of the study is 420, Data gathering technique was questionnaire and data analysis was done with SPSS18. Content validity was confirmed by sociology professionals. Researcher used exploratory factor analysis in SPSS for Construct validity check and 20 of 38 items remained in the model with 4 factor. Moreover, for construct validity check, based on the past literature, it was hypothesized that place attachment was significantly related to length of stay. The hypothesis was confirmed. Scale reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. It was acceptable for 4 subscales of place attachment. Eventually, confirmatory factor analysis was examined by LISREL and goodness of fit for place attachment 4 factor model was confirmed. Natural place dependence, social place dependence, natural place identity and social place identity are 4 factors of place attachment.