Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Journal Article 1: Hodkinson, P., & Lincoln, S. (2008). Online journals as virtual bedrooms? Young people, identity and personal space. Young, 16(1), 27-46.

Abstract: This article considers the increasing importance of personal, individualized spaces in the lives and identities of young people through a comparative examination of the contemporary use of the physical space of the bedroom and the “virtual” territory of the online journal. Particularly popular among those in their teens and early twenties, online journals constitute an interactive form of web log whose content tends to be dominated by reflections upon the everyday experiences, thought and emotions of their individual owner. We propose here that such online journals often take on for their users the symbolic and practical properties of individually owned and controlled space—something we illustrate through a comparison with young people’s uses of the primary, individual-centred, physical space in their lives—the bedroom. This discussion is informed by research by each of the authors, on young people’s bedrooms and on the use of online journals respectively. The article identifies and explores understandings and functions of these two spaces for young people, identifying a number of apparent similarities in their use. Through doing so, we illustrate the potential value of the bedroom as a prism through which to understand online journal use at the same time as helping to illuminate the general significance of personal space to the lives and identities of contemporary young people.

Journal Article 2: Evans, G. W., Ricciuti, H. N., Hope, S., Schoon, I., Bradley, R. H., Corwyn, R. F., & Hazan, C. (2009). Crowding and cognitive development: The mediating role of maternal responsiveness among 36-month-old children. Environment and Behavior, 42(1), 135-148.

Abstract: Residential crowding in both U.S. and U.K. samples of 36-month-old children is related concurrently to the Bracken scale, a standard index of early cognitive development skills including letter and color identification, shape recognition, and elementary numeric comprehension. In the U.S. sample, these effects also replicate prospectively. Statistical controls for income, child gender, maternal age, and maternal education are incorporated throughout. In both samples the association between crowding and cognitive development are mediated by maternal responsiveness. Mothers in more crowded homes are less responsive to their children.

Journal Article 3: Vemuri, A. W., Grove, J. M., Wilson, M. A., & Burch, Jr., W. R. (2009). A tale of two scales: Evaluating the relationship among life satisfaction, social capital, income, and the natural environment at individual and neighborhood levels in Metropolitan Baltimore. Environment and Behavior, 43(1), 3-25.

Abstract: With the rapid growth of cities worldwide, there is a need to better understand factors contributing to life satisfaction in urban environments. Using data from a long-term study of the Baltimore metropolitan region, we build on existing social scientific literature to examine a suite of theoretical factors that have been proposed to explain higher life satisfaction. We find support for many previous theoretical arguments in the literature. Importantly, however, our findings reveal that these results are strikingly scale dependent. For individuals, higher incomes contribute to higher levels of satisfaction, yet social capital does not. For neighborhoods, more social capital strongly increases satisfaction, but higher incomes do not; and access to a clean natural environment always contributes to higher satisfaction, regardless of the scale of analysis. Given these findings, we conclude with the observation that future research must carefully match the “scale” of life satisfaction measurements with the explanatory variables used.

Journal Article 4: Cairney, J. (2005). Housing tenure and psychological well-being during adolescence. Environment and Behavior, 37(4), 552-564.

Abstract: Although a substantial body of work has demonstrated that housing tenure (home ownership vs. renting) is a determinant of health, much less work has focused on this relationship between children and adolescents. This is a significant omission as there is good reason to hypothesize that the effect of housing status on health may change with age. In particular, growing independence and reduced exposure to the residential environment may attenuate the association between housing tenure and health as children age. Using a large representative sample of adolescents, ages 12–19 years old, the hypothesis that age moderates the relationship between housing tenure and psychological well-being is tested. The findings, in general, support the hypothesis. Future directions for research are discussed.

Journal Article 5: Kyle, G., Graef, A., & Manning, R. (2005). Testing the dimensionality of place attachment in recreational settings. Environment and Behavior, 37(2), 153-177.

Abstract: The purpose of this investigation was to examine the psychometric properties of a place-attachment scale using data collected from visitors to the Appalachian Trail in the United States. These data supported a correlated three-factor model consisting of place identity, place dependence, and social bonding. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to cross-validate the model using two sub-samples of the data. Latent factor means were also compared. Although these analyses provided mixed evidence indicating the scale to be a valid and reliable measure of place attachment, there remains some concern about the performance of several indicators (i.e., low factor loadings, low reliability). Latent mean differences were also observed between the two groups on the place identity dimension. The analyses presented in this investigation provide an example of the utility of covariance structure analysis for testing the psychometric properties of scales and for comparing latent mean differences among groups within populations.