A growing body of literature has established a relationship between neighborhood perceptions and both physical and mental health outcomes, yet there remains a need to further explicate possible psychosocial factors that are predictive of neighborhood perceptions. This study hypothesized that an increase in social integration would result in more positive neighborhood perceptions. Propensity score matching on social integration was employed to strengthen the ability to draw a causal inference about the effect on neighborhood perceptions. When controlling for a range of sociodemographic covariates—including area deprivation index as a measure of objective neighborhood conditions—high social integration accounted for more than a 7% increase in neighborhood perceptions. The findings indicate the role of social integration as a predictor of neighborhood perceptions, revealing the potential importance of interventions and mechanisms aimed at improving neighborhood perceptions via social integration for the purposes of improving physical health and mental wellbeing.

中文翻译：

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邻里社会融合作为邻里感知的预测指标

越来越多的文献已经建立了邻里感知与身心健康结果之间的关系，但仍然需要进一步解释可能预测邻里感知的心理社会因素。这项研究假设社会融合的增加会导致更积极的邻里观念。社会融合的倾向得分匹配被用来加强对邻里感知影响进行因果推断的能力。在控制一系列社会人口统计学协变量（包括作为客观邻里条件衡量指标的区域剥夺指数）时，高度的社会融合导致邻里感知增加了 7% 以上。