Journal of Environmental Psychology 79 (2022) 101743
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Journal of Environmental Psychology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jep
Here I belong!: Understanding immigrant descendants’ place attachment
and its impact on their community citizenship behaviors in China
Yueqian Xu a, Danyang Wu a, Ning (Chris) Chen b, *
a
b
Department of Administration Management, School of Public Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou City, 310018, Zhejiang Province, China
Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, UC Business School, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Handling Editor: Leila Scannell
Within the extensive literature, satisfaction and attachment, as separate yet related concepts, have been widely
proved to affect citizenship behaviors at the community levels. However, little research has distinguished their
different roles in predicting various types of community citizenship behaviors. This article clarifies the differ­
ential impact of place satisfaction and place attachment on a series of community citizenship behaviors,
providing empirical evidence from a quantitative survey study. A sample of six immigrant descendant com­
munities in Zhejiang, China, was included for partial least square-based structural equation modeling testing. The
results suggest that: (1) compared with place satisfaction, place attachment is a more potent driver of community
citizenship behaviors. Place attachment strongly predicts residents’ courtesy, altruism, and social virtue be­
haviors, while place satisfaction only predicts residents’ courtesy behavior. (2) Place attachment plays an
important mediating role between place satisfaction and community citizenship behaviors. The implication of
the study for community researchers and managers are further discussed.
Keywords:
Place satisfaction
Place attachment
Community citizenship behavior
Immigrant descendant community
Structural equation modeling
1. Introduction
For decades, humanistic geographers, environmental psychologists,
and sociologists have devoted themselves to studying the impact of
people’s emotional relationships to places on their behaviors towards
such places. In community development studies, community citizenship
behaviors are crucial for community development issues because they
act as catalysts in creating and/or altering the community structure so as
to improve the residents’ quality of life and shape individual well-being
(Theodori & Gene, 2000). Within the extensive literature, satisfaction
and attachment, as separate yet related concepts, have been widely
proved to affect citizenship behaviors at the community levels (Theo­
dori, 2004). On the one hand, numerous studies have demonstrated that
residents who are more attached to their community interact more with
neighbors (Brown, Perkins, & Brown, 2003), are more willing to lend a
helping hand to neighbors (Ren, Harper, Drenner, Terveen, & Kraut,
2012; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2005; Ramkissoon, 2020b), are more
actively involved in community affairs (Perkins, Brown, & Taylor, 1996;
Ramkissoon, 2020a; Wu, 2012), and are more loyal to their communities
(Shaykh-Baygloo, 2020). On the other hand, substantial studies have
demonstrated significant associations between place satisfaction and
community citizenship behaviors, such as helping behavior (Zhang &
Xu,), active community participation (Grillo, Teixeira, & Wilson, 2010),
and community loyalty (Lin, 2008).
Additionally, a few recent analyses explore the effects of satisfaction
and attachment on community citizenship behaviors simultaneously.
For example, Theodori (2004) analyzed the impact of community
attachment and satisfaction on community-level action (measured as
social interaction) using data collected in two rural communities in
Texas. He found that attachment to the community is associated posi­
tively with community action, whereas the bivariate relationships be­
tween satisfaction and community action were not statistically
significant. Jin, Lee, and Cheung (2010) revealed that users’ continu­
ance intention to participate in an online community is determined by
satisfaction and affective commitment. Chiu, Fang, and Wang (2015)
proposed a theoretical model to examine whether attachment and
satisfaction have different effects on the two types of citizenship be­
haviors in virtue communities. The results indicated that attachment
plays a more critical role in explaining citizenship behaviors directed
toward the community and that satisfaction plays a more important role
; PEB, pro-environmental behavior; SOR, stimulus-organism-response; VR, virtual reality; OCB, organizational citizenship behavior.
* Corresponding author. Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, 8140, New
Zealand.
E-mail addresses: xuyueqian@163.com (Y. Xu), lucywdy@126.com (D. Wu), chris.chen@canterbury.ac.nz (N.(C. Chen).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101743
Received 3 February 2021; Received in revised form 4 November 2021; Accepted 5 December 2021
Available online 12 December 2021
0272-4944/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Y. Xu et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 79 (2022) 101743
to conceptualize and measure place attachment. A two-dimensional
framework consisting of place identity and place dependence was first
proposed and widely accepted in environmental psychology (Williams &
Vaske, 2003). Place identity concerns the cognitive connection between
the self and the physical environment (Proshansky, 1978), place
dependence, on the other hand, emphasizes the functional value of a
place (Stokols & Shumaker, 1981). In the development of the construct,
some researchers have suggested that the two-dimensional framework
mainly focuses on the people-place relationship’s cognitive connection
and functional value while neglecting the critical role of affective
connection and social interaction individuals share with settings. For
this reason, some researchers proposed affective attachment (Jorgensen
& Stedman, 2006; Hinds & Sparks, 2008; Halpenny, 2010) and social
bonding (Hidalgo & Hernandez, 2001; Kyle et al., 2005) as the
sub-dimensions of place attachment. In recent work, place attachment
has been conceptualized as an overarching concept, comprised of
sub-dimensions of place identity, place dependence, affective attach­
ment, and social bonding, and it has been applied and tested in many
empirical studies (N. Chen, Dwyer, & Firth, 2014b; N.C. Chen & Dwyer,
2018; N.C. Chen, Dwyer, & Firth, 2014a; Ramkissoon & Mavondo, 2015;
Ramkissoon, Weiler, & Smith, 2012).
in explaining citizenship behaviors directed toward individuals.
To sum up, despite the vast literature on place satisfaction, attach­
ment, and community citizenship behaviors, most studies only assess the
impact of place satisfaction or place attachment on community citi­
zenship behaviors or simply regard the community citizenship behaviors
as a whole and abstract concept without distinguishing between
different types. Limited work has been undertaken to distinguish the
differential effects of each antecedent on various types of community
citizenship behaviors, either theoretically or empirically. Besides, there
are some contradictory conclusions in prior research, which may be due
to the fact that the previous studies fail to distinguish the types of citi­
zenship behaviors. There are various community citizenship behaviors,
and each of them plays a different role in community development. It is
necessary to figure out the preconditions for each kind of community
citizenship behavior to make community governance more effective.
In fact, in environmental psychology, human geography, tourism
marketing, researchers have extensively discussed the correlation be­
tween residents’ attitudes (i.e., place satisfaction) and place attachment
and their impact on place-related behaviors. This provides insights for
better understanding the impact of different levels of people-place re­
lationships on different types of citizenship behavior. For example,
Ramkissoon, Weiler, and Smith (2013) categorized pro-environmental
behavior (PEB) as low-effort and high-effort PEBs and examined the
different effects of place satisfaction and place attachment on the two
PEBs. The results indicates a positive and significant impact of place
attachment on both low and high-effort PEBs, a significant and positive
effect of place satisfaction on low-effort PEB, and a negative and sig­
nificant influence of place satisfaction on high-effort PEB. Chen and
Dwyer (2018) clarified the differential impacts of place satisfaction and
place attachment on a series of destination brand-building behaviors.
Their study provides evidence that a higher-level people-place rela­
tionship (i.e., place attachment) better predicts more-difficult place-re­
lated behaviors, while a lower-level people-place relationship (i.e., place
satisfaction) better predicts less-difficult place-related behaviors. At the
same time, some studies have explored the influence of place-related
behaviors on place satisfaction or/and place attachment. For instance,
Ramkissoon, Mavondo, and Uysal (2018) demonstrated a positive effect
of place satisfaction and park citizenship on place attachment by using a
sample of 222 repeat visitors in an Australian national park.
From this point of view, it is necessary to carry out a more detailed
study on the drivers of residents’ community citizenship behaviors. In
trying to fill this gap, this article aims to explore how place satisfaction
and attachment influence different citizenship behaviors at the com­
munity level; and further discusses the substantive implications of this
investigation on community development. After reviewing the literature
on place-related concepts (mainly place satisfaction and place attach­
ment) and community citizenship behaviors, this research proposes a list
of hypotheses. Based on a survey of residents of six immigrant descen­
dant communities in Zhejiang province, China, the tested research
model provides theoretical and practical evidence for future discussions
on understanding the differential impacts of place satisfaction and
attachment on community citizenship behaviors.
2.1.2. Place satisfaction
Place satisfaction is defined as a multi-dimensional summary judg­
ment of the perceived quality of a setting, ranging from sociability to
services to physical characteristics (Ladewig & Mccann, 1980; Stedman,
2002). Like place attachment, several dimensions of place satisfaction
have been explored, including overall satisfaction, satisfaction with the
environment, satisfaction with services, interpersonal satisfaction, eco­
nomic satisfaction, residential satisfaction, political satisfaction, and
various social dimensions of satisfaction (Theodori & Gene, 2000).
Despite the lack of consensus on what constitutes satisfaction and
attachment and how each is best measured, most researchers asserted
that satisfaction and attachment, although related, have different con­
ceptual bases (Theodori, 2004). The former is based on residents’
evaluation and judgment of the utilitarian value of a place to meet
specific basic needs (Guest & Lee, 1983); thus, it does not require resi­
dents to make any commitment to the home (Chen & Dwyer, 2018).
Nevertheless, the latter is based on a less rational and more emotional
level of attraction to the place (Guest & Lee, 1983). A high level of
attachment means that residents not only rely on the place to meet their
functional needs but also have a strong sense of identity and belonging
towards the place (Park, Macinnis, & Priester, 2010).
2.1.3. Community citizenship behavior
The concept of community citizenship behavior (CCB) is derived
from organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), which can be defined as
the residents’ voluntary behaviors, not directly monetarily rewarded by
a community, and that in the aggregate promote the effective func­
tioning of the community (Organ, 1988; Chiu et al., 2015). Like OCB,
CCB is a multi-dimensional concept. A literature review on citizenship
behavior reveals that nearly 30 potentially different citizenship
behavior forms have been identified, such as helping behavior, sports­
manship, organizational loyalty, organizational compliance, individual
initiative, civic virtue, and self-development (Podsakoff, Mackenzie,
Paine, & Bachrach, 2000). Given that there is a lack of consensus about
the dimensionality of CCB, and many concepts overlap to a certain
extent, this study focuses on three types of CCB with a high degree of
agreement. We define the three types of CCB as follows: (a) courtesy:
actions aimed at preventing problems with others; (b) altruism: volun­
tary behaviors that help others with problems; (c) social virtue:
responsible, constructive participation and involvement in the political
process of a community. The three types of CCB reflect the residents’
social commitment to the community, while indicating different efforts
required and commitment. Courtesy, according to its definition, is
conceptually close to congruency (Šegota, Chen, & Golja, 2021) and
2. Theoretical framework
2.1. Theoretical basis
2.1.1. Place attachment
Place attachment is the most popular term among a plethora of placerelated concepts (Lewicka, 2011), which refers to a positive connection
or bond between a person and a particular place (Giuliani & Feldman,
1993; Williams & Patterson, 1999). Over the years, place attachment has
developed into a multi-dimensional concept involving “an interplay of
affect and emotions, knowledge and beliefs, and behaviors and actions”
(Scannell & Gifford, 2010a; Kyle, Graefe, & Manning, 2005, 155). In
environmental psychology, researchers have been applying themselves
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Journal of Environmental Psychology 79 (2022) 101743
indicates the lowest level of effort required. It is high internal for the
emphasis on maintaining an ideal self. Altruism and social virtue be­
haviors, on the other hand, are more proactive behaviors demonstrating
stronger commitment to the community and influences onto the com­
munity. In terms of scale, courtesy behavior focuses more on the indi­
vidual level, and altruism behavior extends to the neighborhood. Social
virtue behavior, respectively, is proactive at the highest level reflecting
citizenship identity and responsibility, and focuses on the community at
large.
reflects the externalization of human-place relationship.
On the other hand, from a practical point of view, we choose to study
place attachment as the outcome construct for its context. Migration is a
long-term process and therefore requires appropriate temporal per­
spectives to better understand residents’ psychology, behavior, and
associated contributions to community governance. Investigating resi­
dential satisfaction is important but has only limited implications for
local government policy-making and place strategies given the changing
situations and circumstances that they face. Place attachment may
therefore provide a greater understanding of the multiple scales at
which place processes occur due to its multi-dimensional nature. In
addition, considering the context of immigration, we assumed that the
formation of place satisfaction precedes place attachment. Just as Tuan,
the originator of the place theory, argued, what begins as undifferenti­
ated “space” evolves into “place” as when we come to know places better
and endow them with value (Tuan, 1977). It implies that when residents
judge a place with high utilitarian value (that is, they are satisfied with
it), they may give deep meaning to the place and develop unique emo­
tions, which we call place attachment (Shumaker & Taylor, 1983). Based
on the above discussion, the following hypothesis was developed:
2.2. Hypotheses
2.2.1. Place satisfaction and place attachment
“Although people may be satisfied with where they live and not
particularly attached to a place” (Mesch & Manor, 1998), a variety of
studies have demonstrated a significant correlation between these two
constructs in different contexts and situations (Shumaker & Taylor,
1983). However, there are two contrasting beliefs as to the direction
between them. One stream of research regards place attachment as an
important factor explaining the variance of perceived values, and thus a
predictor of place satisfaction (e.g., Brown, Smith, & Assaker, 2016;
Hwang, Lee, & Chen, 2005; Prayag & Ryan, 2012; Ramkissoon et al.,
2013; Scannell & Gifford, 2017; Veasna, Wu, & Huang, 2013; Yuksel,
Yuksel, & Bilim, 2010). Conversely, another research stream reverses
the relationship suggesting that place satisfaction is a predictor of place
attachment. For instance, Lee, Kyle, and Scot (2012) found that festival
satisfaction will arouse a moderate level of emotional attachment to the
festival host destination. Ramkissoon and Mavondo (2015) observed
that place satisfaction in a nature-based setting is likely to be positively
associated with place attachment. Likewise, using survey data from a
sample of 140 residents of two kibbutzim in Israel, Casakin and Reizer
(2017) found that individuals’ residential satisfaction positively affects
place attachment, which then predicts their life satisfaction. It follows
that both interpretations of the relationship between place satisfaction
and place attachment have their theoretical arguments and empirical
evidence. However, place satisfaction and place attachment likely
intertwine and influence each other constantly in a dynamic fashion
(Chen, Hall, Yu, & Qian, 2019). Studies on both directions illustrate the
complex nature of studying human-place relationship and environ­
mental psychology, but either direction between satisfaction and
attachment has its value and place in the literature for specific context
and research purposes. In the present study, we take place satisfaction as
an antecedent of place attachment mainly for two reasons:
On the one hand, from a theoretical point of view, we regard place
satisfaction as a critical factor explaining the variance of cognitive, af­
fective, and behavioral characteristics of the residents, and thus a pre­
dictor of place attachment, which has been supported by a variety of
theories in different contexts of studies (Bonaiuto, Fornara, & Bonne,
2003). For instance, in the study of organizational citizenship behavior,
the organization behavior theory indicates that individuals will have
strong emotional bonds to an organization if that organization helps
them attain their personal needs and are satisfied with the organiza­
tion’s offerings (Hong & Yang, 2009). In the study of brand-building
behavior, Morhart, Herzog, and Tomczak (2009) demonstrated that
followers are likely to internalize brand-based role identity when they
experience satisfaction of their needs for relatedness, competence, and
autonomy in their roles as brand representatives based on identity
theory and self-determination theory. Likewise, in the tourism-related
field, Kim, Lee, and Jung (2020) developed a theoretical framework
including authentic experience, cognitive and affective responses,
attachment, and visit intention with VR tourism using a
stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory. The study identified cogni­
tive and affective responses as significant mediators in predicting
attachment. In another word, the relationship of place satisfaction
influencing place attachment indicates an internalization of
human-place relationship, while that of place attachment leading to CCB
H1.
Place satisfaction has a positive effect on place attachment.
2.2.2. Place attachment and community citizenship behavior
2.2.2.1. Place attachment and courtesy. Courtesy refers to the residents
taking steps to avoid making trouble for the community and their
neighbors. Its essence is to maintain the consistency of personal image
and community image. As mentioned above, residents with place
attachment have a strong sense of identity with the place. They define
their identity concerning the physical environment through an intricate
pattern of conscious and unconscious ideas, beliefs, preferences, feel­
ings, values, goals, behavioral tendencies, and skills relevant to this
environment (Proshansky, 1978). In this sense, settings offer individuals
the opportunity to simultaneously express and affirm their identity
(Proshansky, 1978). Therefore, residents attached to the community are
not just recipients of the community resources; they also carefully
consider the impact of their actions on the community and neighbors to
maintain the relationship with the community. Accordingly, we set out
the following hypothesis:
H2.
Place attachment has a positive effect on courtesy.
2.2.2.2. Place attachment and altruism. Place attachment is originated
from attachment theory (Bowlby, 1979), which indicates individuals are
equipped with the caregiving behavioral systems through which they
perform helping behaviors when their emotional bond to the group is
strong enough to allow for an empathic focus on other members’ needs
(Mikulincer & Shaver, 2005). In other words, a solid emotional
connection with the group facilitates helping behavior that is genuinely
aimed at benefiting others even when there is no egoistic reason for
helping. Ren et al. (2012) also suggest that attachment to a group within
the community causes members to attend to and like the group, which,
in turn, increases their willingness to exert effort to help the member in
the group. Therefore, we predicted the following:
H3.
Place attachment has a positive effect on altruism.
2.2.2.3. Place attachment and social virtue. Previous research on OCB
demonstrates that an individual’s emotional bond to the group elicits a
sense of oneness with the group, causing the individual to take the
group’s perspective and goals as the individual’s own. This, in turn,
motivates the individual to fulfill these goals by performing citizenship
behaviors directed toward the group (Van Knippenberg, 2000). Like­
wise, we assumed that the emotional bond to the community also evokes
a sense of oneness with the community. This sense of oneness further
creates a strong desire to maintain membership in the community
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Y. Xu et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 79 (2022) 101743
(Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979). Therefore, the residents are willing to
take the community’s perspective and goals as their own and perform
constructive participation and involvement to contribute to the com­
munity’s well-being as a whole. Hence, we hypothesized:
H4.
culture of their resettlement place (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco,
2001), resulting in multiple social and place identities (Chen, Hall, &
Prayag, 2021). Meanwhile, generations of immigrants also add great
value to local community with respect to neighborhood governance (Wu
et al., 2019). For example, it has been widely proved that residents with
higher place attachment report greater social and political involvement
in their communities (Mesch & Manor, 1998). However, because of the
multiple social and place identities and complex relationships with
multiple places, immigrants and their descendants may not develop a
deep place attachment locally (Stedman, 2006), which will lead to the
apathy of immigrants and descendants to community affairs to some
extent. Additionally, place attachment can also lead to inter-group
conflicts when local residents are different (e.g., culturally, ethnically)
(Fried, 2000), and the collision of multicultural concepts of “aborigi­
nals” and immigrant descendants increases resistance to the imple­
mentation of some policies. In particular, internal migration has been
universally disadvantaged by discriminative institutional arrangements
(Zhong, Xu, & Piquero, 2017) such as hukou system (Jiang & Kuang,
2018) and cultural barriers (Wang, 2020) in its long history. In a word,
immigrants and their descendants’ community psychology and com­
munity citizenship behaviors need to arouse attention in theory and
practice.
This study chose six immigrant descendant communities located in
the Zhejiang province, China, as the context of the empirical research.
These communities were formed from 1851 to 1864 due to the Taiping
Rebellion migration wave. These cases are highly representative among
hundreds of thousands of immigrant descendant communities in China
that were formed due to migration and settlement in intact groups (Liu,
Deng, & Song, 2018). These communities typically maintain their cul­
tural identity and a strong psychological bond to their ancestral home.
For example, they are used to speaking the dialect of their hometown at
home, interacting with people from the same ancestral region, and
keeping their hometown customs in some important festivals in China.
Taking these immigrant descendant communities as samples has im­
plications for a deeper understanding of the people-place relationship of
immigrant descendants and their corresponding citizenship behaviors,
as well as for similar contexts in China.
To ensure that the model has statistical power, the rule of thumb in
SEM is that the sample size must be at least ten times the indicator
variable (Thompson, 2000). We designed 28 indicator variables in this
study, so the sample size should be greater than 280. A total of 500
surveys were sent out between April and August 2019, door to door, via
a paper and pencil questionnaire. In the end, 373 valid responses were
included in the final dataset for analysis. Table 1 lists the demographic
information related to the participants.
Place attachment has a positive effect on social virtue.
2.2.3. Place satisfaction and community citizenship behavior
As stated before, we assumed that residents with a positive evalua­
tion of the residential environment’s physical and social resources are
likely to develop a sense of attachment to the place (Feldman, 1990;
Shumaker & Taylor, 1983). In other words, residents will automatically
transfer their positive evaluation of their resident place into the
attachment in the internalization process (Chen et al., 2014a, b).
Meanwhile, emotional bonds with the community are products not only
of individual, internal processes but also external, social processes
(Manzo & Perkins, 2006). This means the strong attachment to the place
will drive the residents to voluntarily invest their own social, financial,
and time resources into the community and generate citizenship be­
haviors to promote its effective functioning (Park, Macinnis, Priester,
Eisingerich, & Lacobucci, 2010). Consequently, we proposed the
following hypotheses:
H5. Place satisfaction indirectly affects courtesy through the medi­
ating role of place attachment.
H6. Place satisfaction indirectly affects altruism through the medi­
ating role of place attachment.
H7. Place satisfaction indirectly affects social virtue through the
mediating role of place attachment.
Based on the above assumptions, we proposed a theoretical model to
examine whether place attachment and satisfaction have different ef­
fects on the three types of citizenship behaviors (Fig. 1).
3. Methods
3.1. Study areas and procedure
The governance of public affairs in immigrant and immigrant
descendant communities has always been challenging. The process of
people-place relationship transformation and structural assimilation
often takes generations (Kalter & Granato, 2002). Besides re-cultivating
emotional roots, re-building social networks, and re-adapting to the
living environment and culture as first-generation immigrants, immi­
grant descendants face other challenges such as depressed fertility
(Andersson, Persson, & Obućina, 2017), intergenerational conflict
(Foner & Dreby, 2011), and identity crisis (Nahirny & Fishman, 1965).
These challenges largely owe to cultural clash between first generation
immigrants’ original values, norms, and behavioral patterns and local
Fig. 1. Research model.
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Y. Xu et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 79 (2022) 101743
by Hair, Ringle, and Sarstedt (2011), this study ran the standard PLS
algorithm (1,000 iterations and a stop criterion of 10− 7) and assessed the
significance level of the estimates based on 5,000-times bootstraps.
Table 1
Demographics of study participants (n = 373).
Measure
Items
N (%)
Gender
Ages (years)
Male
Female
Mean, SD
Length of residence (in years)
Min-Max
Mean, SD
243 (65.1%)
130 (34.9%)
44.31,
13.612
12–83
40.99,
16.133
1–83
11.08, 2.447
Length of residence (in months per
year)
Education
Income
Min-Max
Mean, SD
Min-Max
Bachelor’s degree or
higher
Diploma
Polytechnic
High school or less
Missing
< ¥5,000
¥5,000 - ¥9,999.99
¥10,000 - ¥19,999.99
¥20,000 - ¥49,999.99
¥50,000 - ¥79,999.99
¥80,000 - ¥99,999.99
≥ ¥100,000
Missing
4. Results
4.1. Outer model evaluation
We modeled place attachment as a second-order construct consisting
of place identity, place dependence, affective attachment, and social
bonding. Since PLS does not directly support second-order factors, we
generated factor scores for each of their first-order dimensions, which
we then used as reflective indicators of the second-order construct (Chin,
Marcolin, & Newsted, 2003). A confirmatory factor analysis was con­
ducted to verify the criteria of reliability, convergent validity, and
discriminant validity.
The internal consistency reliability was examined by Cronbach’s
alpha (α) and composite reliability (CR). Table 2 shows that majority of
the values were above the commonly accepted value of 0.7 (Hair, Hult,
Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2016), except place identity, social bonding, and
social virtue. However, all composite reliability values are higher than
0.7, suggesting an acceptable reliability of measurement (Hair et al.,
2016).
We assessed the convergent validity of the scales with two criteria:
(1) all the standardized indicator loadings should be significant and
exceed 0.5 ((Chen & Tsai, 2007; Hulland, 1999), and (2) average vari­
ance extracted (AVE) should exceed 0.5 (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). As indi­
cated in Table 2, all items exhibited a loading higher than 0.5 on their
respective construct. Additionally, all the AVEs ranged from 0.507 to
0.705, suggesting a pass of the convergent validity test. For evaluating
discriminant validity, we compared the square root of AVE values with
latent variable correlations (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). As Table 3 shows,
the square root of each construct’ AVE was greater than its highest
correlation with any other construct, except that between place identity
and affective attachment. This high correlation among dimensions of
place attachment is often found in empirical studies due to their con­
ceptual relevance (e.g., Chen et al., 2014a; Lee, Kyle, & Scott, 2012).
Accordingly the results indicate acceptable discriminant validity in
general.
1–12
22 (5.9%)
57 (15.3%)
24 (6.4%)
261 (71.7%)
9 (2.4%)
47 (12.6%)
23 (6.2%)
35 (9.4%)
110 (29.5%)
102 (27.3%)
26 (7.0%)
18 (4.8%)
12 (3.2%)
3.2. Measures
We used a three-part questionnaire consisting of the scales of place
satisfaction, place attachment, and community citizenship behaviors.
The dimensions and items of the scale were all retrieved from previous
studies that were statistically validated by several structural equation
modeling studies. All the measurements were made with a Likert type of
5-point (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). The place satisfac­
tion was measured with three items based on studies by Yuksel et al.
(2010) and Ramkissoon et al. (2013). Three statements were used to
evaluate the participants’ overall satisfaction with their place of resi­
dence. The measure of place attachment has been widely used in rele­
vant studies. Fourteen items summarized from previous studies were
adapted, including Kyle et al.’s (2005), Yuksel et al.’s (2010), Niel­
sen-Pincus et al.’s (2010), and Chen et al.’s (2014a) place attachment
scale. The community citizenship behaviors scale was borrowed from
Podsakoff et al.’s (2000) organizational citizenship behaviors scale and
modified to suit the community context. Besides, referring to previous
studies (Chiu et al., 2015), four sociodemographic factors – age, length
of residence, education, and income – were included as control variables
(see Table 1). The items were either adopted from existing Chinese
version of previous studies (e.g. place attachment and place satisfac­
tion), or translated from respective English version into Chinese (e.g.
three types of CCB). Prior to the formal investigation, an expert panel in
this area competent in both languages was invited to comment and
provide suggestions on the reliability and validity of these measure­
ments, and a further pilot study was conducted to assure that re­
spondents are able to understand the questions and reflect truthfully
their opinions, as well as checking for any ambiguity issues or such.
4.2. Inner model evaluation
Unlike CB-SEM, PLS-SEM does not optimize a unique global scalar
function. Researchers using PLS-SEM rely on measures indicating the
model’s predictive capabilities to judge the model quality (Hair, Sar­
stedt, Ringle, & Mena, 2012). In this study, path coefficients, coefficient
of determination, effect size, and predictive relevance were calculated to
evaluate the inner model. In this study, the model with control variables
was first tested. The results show that age, length of residence, educa­
tion, and income consistently failed to reach statistical significance.
Therefore, we further evaluated the model without control variables,
and the results are as follows:
Path coefficients (β). Table 4 and Fig. 2 summarize the path co­
efficients of the hypothesized relationships among the constructs. In
summary, place satisfaction has a significant positive effect on place
attachment (β = 0.733, p < 0.001). Place attachment has significant
positive effects on courtesy (β = 0.311, P < 0.01), altruism (β = 0.512, P
< 0.001), and social virtue (β = 0.469, P < 0.001), while place satis­
faction was only found to have a significant effect on courtesy (β =
0.319, P < 0.01).
Coefficient of determination (R2). Table 5 presents the R2 values for the
endogenous constructs. Place satisfaction explained 53.6% of the vari­
ance in place attachment. Place satisfaction and place attachment
together explained an additional 34.0% of the variance in courtesy,
35.7% of the variance in altruism, and 26.6% of the variance in social
virtue. In general, the model’s predictive power reached a moderate
3.3. Data analysis
This study applied the partial least squares (PLS)-based structural
equation modeling (SEM) approach to test the research model and hy­
potheses. In terms of its applicability and benefits, applying PLS-SEM is
more consistent with the study objectives of exploratory research and
theory development. Besides, it can handle nonnormally distributed
data. Furthermore, PLS-SEM performs well for complex models with
limited sample sizes (Hair, Sarstedt, Ringle, & Mena, 2012). The soft­
ware SmartPLS version 3.3.2 was used to analyze the data. As suggested
5
Y. Xu et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 79 (2022) 101743
effects of the exogenous latent variable. Effect size values of less than
0.02 indicate that there is no effect (Chin, 1998; Cohen, 1988, 1992;
Hair et al., 2016). Table 5 reveals that both place satisfaction and place
attachment had a weak effect on courtesy (f2SAT→COU = 0.072, f2PA→COU
= 0.068). Place attachment moderately affect altruism (f2PA→ALT =
0.190) while weakly affect social virtue (f2PA→SV = 0.140). Neither
altruism nor social virtue was affected by place satisfaction (f2SAT→ALT =
0.009, f2SAT→SV = 0.003). This suggests that the variance of altruism and
social virtue is mainly explained by place attachment. The results un­
derline the importance of place satisfaction and place attachment in
differently explaining community citizenship behaviors (Chen & Dwyer,
2018).
Predictive relevance (Q2, q2). The Q2 values estimated by the blind­
folding procedure represent a measure of how well the path model can
predict the originally observed values (Geisser, 1974; Stone, 1974). In
the inner model, Q2 values of all endogenous latent variables were larger
than zero, indicating that the model has predictive relevance (Chin,
1998; Henseler, Ringle, & Sinkovics, 2009). Similar to the f2 values,
effect size q2 is a relative measure of predictive relevance. Values of
0.02, 0.15, and 0.35 indicate that an exogenous construct has a weak,
moderate, strong effect for a certain endogenous construct (Chin, 1998;
Henseler et al., 2009). The findings are similar to the effect size f2
assessment, that is, place satisfaction and place attachment’s relative
impacts of predictive relevance to courtesy were almost equal
(q2SAT→COU = 0.028, q2PA→COU = 0.027), but place attachment has
greater predictive power on altruism and social virtue (q2PA→ALT =
0.105, q2PA→SV = 0.057) than place satisfaction (q2SAT→ALT = 0.004,
q2SAT→SV = − 0.001).
Table 2
Testing reliability and converge validity (n = 373).
Constructs and items
Mean
(SD)
Place satisfaction (α = 0.790, CR = 0.878, AVE = 0.705)
I am very satisfied with my life in this place.
4.89
(0.35)
Living in this place has lived up to my
4.81
expectations.
(0.46)
The services provided by this place are very
4.75
satisfactory.
(0.64)
Place attachment
Place identity (α = 0.514, CR = 0.755, AVE = 0.508)
I identify strongly with this place.
4.95
(0.22)
I feel that I can really be myself in this place.
4.85
(0.39)
This place is very special to me.
4.83
(0.49)
Place dependence (α = 0.706, CR = 0.820, AVE = 0.533)
This place is a good place to do the things I enjoy.
4.84
(0.42)
There are no better places to be than this place.
4.77
(0.50)
I prefer this place over others for the activities that
4.85
I enjoy.
(0.42)
This place is my favorite place to be.
4.84
(0.52)
Affective attachment (α = 0.733, CR = 0.833, AVE = 0.555)
I really miss this place when I’m away from it for
4.86
too long.
(0.39)
This place means a lot to me.
4.83
(0.47)
I feel a strong sense of belonging to this place and
4.86
its settings/facilities.
(0.44)
I have an emotional attachment to this place and
4.89
its settings/facilities.
(0.33)
Social bonding (α = 0.601, CR = 0.786, AVE = 0.557)
I have a special connection to this place and the
4.82
people here.
(0.44)
I have friends/family in this place.
4.79
(0.45)
My friends/family would be disappointed if I were
4.62
to move from this place.
(0.76)
Community citizenship behaviors
Courtesy (α = 0.789, CR = 0.855, AVE = 0.541)
I try to avoid creating problems for my neighbors.
4.80
(0.48)
I am mindful of how my behavior affects other
4.80
people.
(0.48)
I do not abuse the rights of others.
4.82
(0.45)
I take steps to try to prevent problems with others.
4.80
(0.56)
I consider the impact of my actions on other people
4.77
living in this place.
(0.59)
Altruism (α = 0.762, CR = 0.863, AVE = 0.677)
I willingly help others who have problems.
4.81
(0.43)
I help others who are in difficulty in this place.
4.74
(0.51)
I am always ready to lend a helping hand to those
4.76
around me.
(0.52)
Social Virtue (α = 0.510, CR = 0.752, AVE = 0.507)
I do things that are not mandatory but are
4.80
considered important.
(0.65)
I do things that are not required but help the place
4.86
image.
(0.41)
I read and keep up with place announcements,
4.70
memos, and so on.
(0.63)
t
λ
30.181
0.86
41.877
0.90
19.512
0.77
9.778
0.69
21.794
0.77
13.658
0.68
14.475
0.71
22.170
0.79
16.465
0.74
10.846
0.67
17.706
0.75
11.645
0.73
13.602
0.76
13.766
0.74
17.271
0.77
49.598
0.87
10.091
0.58
10.674
0.71
19.757
0.76
9.731
0.71
13.541
0.70
22.182
0.80
21.154
0.80
24.559
0.82
33.165
0.85
6.370
0.63
20.359
0.83
9.952
0.67
4.3. Mediation analysis
In this study, the bootstrap method was used to analyze the sampling
distribution of indirect effects. As shown in Table 6, the mediating ef­
fects of place attachment between place satisfaction and three types of
community citizenship behaviors were found to be statistically signifi­
cant. More precisely, place attachment is a complementary mediation
between place satisfaction and courtesy; and an indirect-only mediation
between place satisfaction and altruism and social virtue (Nitzl, Roldán,
& Cepeda, 2016; Zhao, Lynch, & Chen, 2010).
5. Discussion
In this study, seven hypotheses to examine the relationships between
place satisfaction, place attachment, and community citizenship be­
haviors were proposed and tested. Place attachment was represented as
a second-order factor, consisting of four sub-dimensions: place identity,
place dependence, affective attachment, and social bonding. The reli­
ability and validity as reported above suggest that the four dimensions
are an accurate representation of the place attachment construct, which
verifies the validity of existing studies on measuring place attachment
(Ramkissoon et al., 2012; Ramkissoon & Mavondo, 2015; Chen et al.,
2014a, 2014b; Chen & Dwyer, 2018).
Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4 tested the direct effects of place attachment
on three types of community citizenship behaviors. Findings suggest
that place attachment has a strong and direct positive impacts on resi­
dents’ courtesy, altruism, and social virtue. These results are consistent
with previous research and have been supported in our fieldwork. We
found that in communities where social capital and consensus are
already substantial, residents pay more attention to their behaviors to
avoid creating problems for the community and its members. Addi­
tionally, the interaction between neighbors is usually more frequent,
and volunteer activities are easier to be organized, and the problems and
difficulties can often be resolved through helping one another. Besides,
residents are more willing to participate in community activities and
always keep abreast of community changes. Conversely, in the com­
munities where people do not develop a sense of attachment, the
level (Chin, 1998).
Effect size (f2). f2 reflects the relative impact of a particular exoge­
nous latent variable on an endogenous latent variable by means of
changes in the R2. Guidelines for assessing f2 are that values of 0.02,
0.15, and 0.35, respectively, represent weak, moderate, and strong
6
Y. Xu et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 79 (2022) 101743
Table 3
Testing discriminant validity (n = 373).
AA
ALT
COU
PD
PI
SAT
SB
SV
AA
ALT
COU
PD
PI
SAT
SB
SV
0.745
0.520
0.466
0.699
0.748
0.612
0.629
0.495
0.823
0.668
0.526
0.503
0.487
0.557
0.540
0.736
0.444
0.483
0.547
0.561
0.563
0.730
0.736
0.675
0.694
0.404
0.712
0.690
0.673
0.442
0.840
0.625
0.407
0.746
0.457
0.712
Notes: AA = affective attachment; ALT = altruism; COU = courtesy; PD = place dependence; PI = place identity; SAT = place satisfaction; SB = social bonding; SV =
social virtue; Square root of AVE is shown on the diagonal of the matrix in bold; inter-construct correlation is shown off the diagonal.
others, and its essence is to keep the consistency between individual
behaviors and community image. It focuses on maintaining a desired
self, suggesting a more passive responding to the social environment,
compared to the other two types of behaviors. Place satisfaction is found
directly influencing this type of behavior that is more individual, and
with least involvement of community level engagement. On the con­
trary, altruism and social virtue are more proactive and indicate higher
level of community engagement. Altruism can improve the welfare of
community members, and social virtue can enhance the well-being of
Table 4
Path coefficients and significance.
Hypothesis
Place
satisfaction
Place
satisfaction
Place
satisfaction
Place
satisfaction
Place
attachment
Place
attachment
Place
attachment
β
t
p.
95% BC
CI
0.733***
17.791
0.000
→
Place
attachment
Courtesy
0.319**
3.133
0.002
→
Altruism
0.114
1.115
0.265
→
Social virtue
0.065
0.707
0.479
→
Courtesy
0.311**
2.929
0.003
→
Altruism
0.512***
5.671
0.000
→
Social virtue
0.469***
4.405
0.000
0.64;
0.80
0.12;
0.51
− 0.08;
0.32
− 0.11;
0.25
0.08;
0.50
0.32;
0.67
0.25;
0.67
→
Table 5
Effect size and predictive relevance of endogenous latent variable.
Adjusted R2
Place attachment
← Place satisfaction
Courtesy
← Place satisfaction
← Place attachment
Altruism
← Place satisfaction
← Place attachment
Social virtue
← Place satisfaction
← Place attachment
Notes: BC CI = bias-corrected confidence interval.
community is only a territorial concept for residents and lacks social,
emotional, and symbolic meaning. Consequently, residents show a
tendency of egoism in social interaction. They focus on their family af­
fairs while lack the motivation and enthusiasm to participate in com­
munity development.
Meanwhile, it is interesting to find that place satisfaction only has a
direct impact on courtesy compared with place attachment. Courtesy is a
type of behavior defined as actions aimed at preventing problems with
0.536
0.340
0.357
0.266
f2
1.161S
0.072W
0.068W
0.009N
0.190M
0.003N
0.140W
Q2 (D = 7)
0.224
0.173
0.237
0.123
q2 (D = 7)
0.289W
0.028W
0.027W
0.004N
0.105W
− 0.001N
0.057W
Notes: Superscript N = no effect, W = weak effect, M = moderate effect; S =
strong effect; D = omission distance, default omission distance (7) applied as
suggested by previous literature (Chin, 1998).
Fig. 2. Result of structural model testing.
7
Y. Xu et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 79 (2022) 101743
Table 6
Testing mediating effects.
Direct effect
SAT→PA→COU
SAT→PA→ALT
SAT→PA→SV
β
0.319**
0.114
0.065
Indirect effect
t
3.133
1.115
0.707
p.
0.002
0.265
0.479
95% BC CI
0.12; 0.51
− 0.08; 0.32
− 0.11; 0.25
β
0.227**
0.377***
0.379***
t
2.839
5.283
5.310
p.
0.005
0.000
0.000
95% BC CI
0.07; 0.38
0.24; 0.52
0.23; 0.51
Notes: BC CI = bias-corrected confidence interval; SAT = place satisfaction; PA = place attachment; COU = courtesy; ALT = altruism; SV = social virtue; **p < 0.01,
***p < 0.001.
the whole community. In other words, courtesy emphasizes that resi­
dents do not damage the image of the community, while altruism and
social virtue further require that residents contribute to the community
and its members, which needs to invest high levels of effort into the
community (Ramkisson et al., 2013; Ramkissoon et al., 2018). As
mentioned above, place satisfaction reflects residents’ attitude and
evaluation of the place and is not necessarily associated with an inter­
nalization of human-place relationship like place attachment. It is
reasonable to suggest residents’ efforts for congruence (focusing on the
self) may be driven by their judgement of the quality of the place for
living, besides their attachment to the place. However, for more pro­
active citizenship behaviors such as altruism and social virtue, place
attachment plays a more significant role, and thus the exertion of these
behaviors requires the internalization of externalization of human-place
relationship. Therefore, the driving force of place satisfaction for com­
munity citizenship behaviors is weaker than place attachment. This
finding is in line with researchers’ arguments that community citizen­
ship behaviors can be of different types (Chiu et al., 2015) and further
shed light on explaining why previous studies on how place satisfaction
affects community citizenship behavior have drawn opposite conclu­
sions, since they did not distinguish between different types of com­
munity citizenship behaviors.
Hypothesis 1 examined the relationship between place satisfaction
and place attachment. Findings indicate that place satisfaction is an
essential prerequisite to the formation of place attachment. Findings on
the strength of the relationship between the two constructs are in line
with previous studies (Lee, Kyle & Scot, 2012; Ramkissoon & Mavondo,
2015), providing support for this relationship in an immigrant descen­
dant community context. This finding implies that the more residents
are satisfied with the community, the more likely to develop a deep
attachment to the community. In addition, the mediating effects of place
attachment between place satisfaction and community citizen behaviors
were found to be statistically significant, supporting hypotheses 5, 6,
and 7. This finding is consistent with existing studies (e.g., Chen et al.,
2014b; Ramkissoon et al., 2018; Zenker & Rütter, 2014), which confirms
that at least one of the mechanisms linking resident satisfaction to citi­
zenship behavior is place attachment. (e.g. Ramkissoon & Mavondo,
2015). Moreover, this study further compares the competing model in
which the direction of the relationship between place satisfaction and
place attachment is from place attachment to place satisfaction. The
results show that: (1) Model fit indices of the two models remain the
same; (2) The R2 values for three endogenous constructs (courtesy,
altruism, social virtue) of the two models remain the same, around 0.4,
suggesting both models with moderate predictive power; (3) In the
competing model, the total effect of place satisfaction on either altruism
or social virtue is tested insignificant, suggesting the importance of place
attachment as a mediator; (4) In either model, the coefficients of the
relationships from attachment to each behavior remain significant,
implying a better predictive power of attachment on behaviors. These
results suggest a distinguishing impact of place attachment predicting
behaviors, compared to that of place satisfaction, in spite of such high
correlation between place satisfaction and place attachment. This is
further supported by Inner Model evaluation in 4.2, specifically illus­
trated in Table 5. Previous research suggests place satisfaction and place
attachment likely intertwine and influence each other constantly in a
dynamic fashion. Both interpretations of the relationship between place
satisfaction and place attachment have their theoretical arguments and
empirical evidence. Further, defining the relationship between place
satisfaction and place attachment also depends on the context of the
research. This study focuses on the formation process of place attach­
ment (the internalization of the human-place relationship) as a medi­
ating variable and its influence on the output of citizenship behaviors
(the externalization of the human-place relationship), therefore pro­
posing place attachment as a mediator is more appropriate for its
intended purpose.
6. Conclusions
This article addressed the unexplored questions of how place satis­
faction and attachment influence citizenship behaviors at the commu­
nity level differently. The results suggest that place attachment can
directly drive community citizenship behaviors, while place satisfaction
can indirectly drive community citizenship behavior through the
mediating role of place attachment. In terms of conceptual contribution,
this study distinguishes the impacts of place satisfaction and attachment
on community citizenship behaviors rather than purely conceptual dif­
ferences. This provides empirical evidence to support place attachment,
as a higher-level place-related concept compared to satisfaction, has a
more potent driving force for community citizenship behaviors and
extends the potential of applying the place attachment in understanding
place-related behaviors. Besides, we found that place satisfaction only
directly impacts courtesy, while it has no significant effect on altruism
and social virtue. This finding reinforces the need to consider commu­
nity citizenship behavior as something other than a unidimensional
construct and suggests that the same factor can have different effects,
depending on the type of community citizenship behaviors.
In terms of managerial implication, this study provides a feasible tool
for community managers to improve immigrant and immigrant
descendant community governance performance. The more satisfied
residents are with the place, the more probable they are to develop a
sense of attachment to this place; the stronger they are attached to a
place, the more likely they are to exhibit courtesy, altruism, and social
virtue. This finding is straightforward to community managers. On the
one hand, they should aim to provide better living conditions and re­
sources to satisfy residents, especially those who have strong cultural
and/or emotional linkage to other places, since satisfaction is a deep soil
for cultivating residents’ sense of community attachment and can
motivate the residents to behave politely. On the other hand, the com­
munity managers need to pay more attention to increasing residents’
attachment to the community, which can motivate the residents to
proactively maintain the community’s image, help others, and partici­
pate in community development. Strategies to develop place attachment
can be considered from the promotion of place identity, place depen­
dence, affective attachment, and social bonding. To be specific, com­
munity managers can enhance the residents’ awareness of “in-group” by
carrying out cultural activities or social rituals that stimulate emotions.
This is specifically relevant to immigrant descendant communities in
China where social connections within the communities are maintained
intact in generations. Further, place dependence can be increased by
improving the environmental conditions, living convenience, and
8
Y. Xu et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 79 (2022) 101743
org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101743.
management level of the community. In addition, by holding periodic,
diversified, and unique community events, residents can continuously
strengthen the collective memory of the community, deepen their af­
fective attachment and social connection in the social interaction. In
summary, there are ways of assisting generations of immigrants in
structural assimilation without forcing immigrant descendants to
abandon their cultural and genealogical heritages from the original
places of their ancestors.
Although the findings of this article are provocative, there are some
limitations and opportunities for extension. First, the measurement of
place satisfaction may give rise to some limitations. Like place attach­
ment, place satisfaction is a multi-dimensional concept (Theodori &
Gene, 2000). However, this study simplifies place satisfaction to a uni­
dimensional construct measured as residents’ overall satisfaction with
the community. Thus, there may add value for future studies to delineate
the satisfaction construct into other sub-dimensions in order to shed
further light on the relationships between place satisfaction, place
attachment, and community citizenship behaviors. Second, existing
studies have shown that the various dimensions of place attachment
have different effects on place-related behaviors (N. Chen, Dwyer, &
Firth, 2014b; N.C. Chen & Dwyer, 2018; N.C. Chen, Dwyer, & Firth,
2014a; Scannell & Gifford, 2010b). Therefore, future studies should
further explore the differences in the influence of the four
sub-dimensions of place attachment on different types of community
citizenship behaviors, so that community managers can use different
tools for influencing each of the dimensions.
Finally, the findings are limited to a specific sample. The study was
conducted among the immigrant descendant communities formed due
to historical reasons. These immigrant descendants illustrate a unique
pattern of people-place relationship transformation and structural
assimilation, in which some of their attachments to original place and
resettlement destination modify along with their length of stay and
frequency of visits (Gustafson, 2007). Interestingly some may grow
deeper attachment to a place when they are away, consistent with the
saying that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” (Van der Klis &
Karsten, 2009). The proposed model should be further tested in various
types of immigrant and descendant communities to for potential
generalizability. Moreover, future research would benefit from longi­
tudinal studies to capture the causal relationships of the model.
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CRediT authorship contribution statement
Yueqian Xu: Conceptualization, Resources, Investigation, Writing review & editing, Supervision, Project administration. Danyang Wu:
Methodology, Data analysis, Writing - original draft, Writing - review &
editing. Ning (Chris) Chen: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data
analysis, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project
administration.
Funding
This research was supported by Soft Science Research Program of
Zhejiang Province (No.2022C25016).
Declaration of competing interest
None.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Mrs. Xiaowei Xu for her valuable
help during the data collection phase.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
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