The intervened effect of place attachment on the relationship between community attachment and environmental behaviors (case study: Tajrish neighborhood)

Place attachment is an emotional connection to a specific location or perspective that usually includes physi cal and social elements. From Hummon’s point of view, the community attachment is defined as an emotional investment in one place. Today, environmental concepts have deeply social implications, and a large part of the people’s environmental beliefs and behaviors changes under the influence of cultural and social systems. The purpose of this study was to inves tigate the relationship between community attachment and environmental behaviors, considering the role of mediating attachment to a place among residents of Tajrish neighborhood located in the district one of Tehran.

The present research was a descriptive, analytical-correlational survey. A sample of 284 individu als was selected from inhabitants of Tajrish neighborhood based on random sampling method. The participants were asked to fill out the research questionnaire, reliability and validity of which were confirmed. The obtained data were statistically analyzed by the correlation analysis and structural equation modeling using SPSSv.21 and AMOSv.21.

The results of standard coefficients obtained from structural equation modeling showed that com munity attachment can directly and positively predict place attachment )p<0.01, β=0.65) and place attachment also can directly and positively predict pro-environmental civic engagement )p<0.01, β=0.48). Finally, the study findings revealed that com munity attachment affects pro-environmental civic engagement both directly )p<0.01, β=0.41) and indirectly )p<0.01, β=0.31), through the mediating role of place attachment. In order to assess the fitness of the model, fit indices from eight main indicators were used. In this study, the relative Chi-square, )CMIN/df) was estimated 1.375, indicating the acceptable condition of the model. The Root Mean Square Error of Approximation )RMSEA) of 0.036 also demonstrated the validity of the model devel oped in this study. In the model measured in the present study, the values of 0.990 for the GFI index and 0.965 for the AGFI index showed a highly favorable fit model. The Increasing Fitting Index )IFI), Tucker-Lewis Index )TLI), and Comparative Fit Index )CFI), were, respectively, 0.996, 0.990, and 0.996 in this study. The acceptable value of )Bentler-Bonett) Normed Fit Index )NFI) should be greater than 0.9, which was obtained in the present study and is an indication of the confirmation of the research model.

The place attachment as an interventional factor between community attachment and pro-environmental be havior accentuates the importance of place connections to support the combination of social connections. Place attachment could be viewed as a critical component in instilling and sustaining active citizenship in the protection of the environment. This sense can be created through direct experiences with places, especially long-term, frequent, and positive experiences as well as learning about places through non-direct sources rather than direct contact.