A Causal Analysis of the Sense of Community for High-rise Residents in Bangkok Metropolitan Area

This multidisciplinary research focuses on investigating the environmental-psychological causality of the sense of community among high-rise housing's residents. The cross-sectional survey had been conducted in six different zones of Bangkok metropolitan area by employing the multi-stage sampling technique. Correspondingly, the 1,206 participants living in eighteen residential high-rises responded to the personal and environmental psychological (PEP) questionnaire, whereas, the physical conditions of the buildings were examined and evaluated by utilizing a non-participant observation along with the physical environmental (PE) assessment. The multiple linear regression analysis was a major approach applied for analyzing and endorsing the causal effects of the independent variables on the sense of community of the respondents, which was measured in a rating-scale type. The set of independent variables were classified into five categories, namely, (a) urban and community factors, (b) architectural factors, (c) personal attributes and dwelling behavioral factors, (d) personal psychological factors, and (e) environmental-psychological factors. The predictive model identified ten determinants that significantly dominated the variance of the sense of community at the 95% confidence interval (significance level of .05). Regarding the final regression equation, it revealed that the communal character of the building, social capital and participation, mental health condition, relationship with neighbors, and privacy satisfaction were the factors that enhanced the high-rise residents' sense of community. On the contrary, population density, the defensible character of the building, the privacy-supportive character of the building, introvert personality of the residents, and the average of safety concern were the factors that negatively influence their sense of community.


Introduction
The vertical housing has evolved and functioned as humans' habitat for thousands of years, conspicuously in the urban area of where the agglomeration of population and infrastructures are congested.For centuries, the popularity of high-rise housing has been fluctuating.Besides the idealistic urban lifestyle, the negative consequences of living in high-rise specifically one that involves the psychological impact has been argued among the Western scholars and professionals for decades.Several previous studies suggested that high-rise residents have a poorer social relationship including a weaker sense of community than those who live in other housing types as well as pointed out the unique physical feature of the residential high-rise as a primary cause.(Forrest, La Grange, & Ngai-Ming, 2002;Gifford, 2007) In Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, the high-rise housing development began in the 1970s after the end of economic recession amid Indochina Wars.(Boonkajai, 1993) Since then, the demand and supply of high-rise accommodation known as "condominium" or "condo" have been gradually enlarging due to an urban sprawl and the extreme primate city character, which progressively attract people to this metropolis.The latest decennial census in 2010 revealed that the number of Bangkok population living in the residential high-rises was several hundred thousand.(Population Statistics Group, 2010) Nevertheless, the empirical research and in-depth studies involving social behaviors and sense of community of high-rise dwellers in Thailand have been out of focus and not yet been reported academically.
Regarding the mentioned circumstances, the objective of this study is therefore to investigate the distinctive degree of the sense of community among high-rise inhabitants and the causality of this particular psychological condition in the urban context of Bangkok.The remainder of this paper is structured as follows.Section 2 discusses the theoretical concept and previous studies related to the sense of community, and the operationalization of the conceptual variables.Section 3 describes the details of the procedures, methodology, and the implementation of the research instruments.The results of the field survey and the statistical analysis are demonstrated in Section 4. Then the interpretation and explanation of the numerical findings are further discussed in Section 5.At the end of the paper, Section 6 provides the conclusions of the study, recommendations, and directions for the future work.

Principle and Components of Sense of Community
The term "sense of community" was defined as a perception of similarity, interdependence, and belongingness to a particular social group of which members are sharing a common faith or commitment.(McMillan & Chavis, 1986;Sarason, 1966;Wright, 2004) In the context of high-rise housing, besides safety and privacy, sense of community is the higher hierarchy of needs that residents could acknowledge from their home environment to fulfill the meaning of home, social recognition, empowering, moreover, to diminish their alienation.(Appleyard, 1979;DeMartino & Stacey, 1958;Maslow, 1958;Rujibhong, Upala, & Edelenbos, 2016) Regarding the primary components of a community: 1) territorial component (geographical notion), and 2) relational component (quality of human relationship) (Gusfield, 1975), to investigate high-rise dwellers' sense of community, the high-rise residential compound was defined as a territorial demarcation, whereas, the relationship between residents was an interested relational condition.
Among the previous research in relevant to the sense of community, the theoretical concept proposed by McMillan and Chavis in 1986 was the most influential.(Wright, 2004) They developed a Sense of Community Index (SCI-1) based on a conceptual model, in which four principles of the sense of community could be comprehended as follows: (Bess, Fisher, Sonn, & Bishop, 2002) 1) Membership is the feeling of being or not being a part of the community.This element comprises five attributes: (a) boundaries, (b) emotional safety, (c) sense of belonging and identification, (d) personal investment, and (e) common symbol system.
2) Influence is a bi-directional concept which is required to be under the following conditions: (s) more attracted to the community they are influential, (b) cohesiveness and positive relationship between members, (c) consensual validation between individuals and the group to conform and uniform, and (d) concurrently reciprocal influence between members and group.
3) Integration and Fulfillment of Needs (Reinforcement) refers to as a primary function of a community.The community becomes strong, based on the perspective is that members of the group are being rewarded for their participation, and when people meet others' needs while they meet their own.4) Shared Emotional Connection is composed of seven sub components as follows: (a) contact hypothesis: the more contact, the closer people are, (b) quality of interaction: the more positive relationship, the greater bond is built, (c) closer to events, (d) shared valent events, (e) investment, (f) the effect of honor and humiliation on community members, and (g) spiritual bond.(Bess et al., 2002;McMillan & Chavis, 1986;Wright, 2004) In 2008, Chavis had revised and proposed the SCI-2 based on the same four components mentioned above yet with more question items and supportive statistical demonstration.The SCI index was reported as the most used and broadly validated measure of sense of community.(Chavis, Lee, & Acosta, 2008;Chipuer & Pretty, 1999)

Potential Factors Influencing Sense of Community
In accordance with the previous research and studies, the driving force of the sense of community can come from multiple directions and dimensions.At the urban scale, some empirical studies indicated that the population density and heterogeneity of the neighborhoods were the dominant factors that varied the degree of sense of community.(Milgram, 1970;Takooshian, 2005) Some comparative studies conducted in Thailand concluded that among the sampling group, respondents who lived in the peripheral areas of the city reported the higher perception of the sense of community than those who resided in Bangkok urban area.(Kraithaworn & Piasue, 2013) For the architectural and physical environmental aspects, despite proximity between dwelling units, several studies demonstrated that the architectural features of high-rise could impersonalize the residents and 2) Internal factors refer to the determinants related to the dwellers themselves.Three subcategories belong to this group are as follows: IV03: Personal attributes and dwelling behavioral factors involve the following individuals' character and living behaviors: age, a length of residency, spending time at home, relationship with neighbors, and the number of unit's members.IV04: Physical and psychological background factors consist of four indicators which are a physical health condition, mental health condition, demand for privacy (introvert personality), and social capital and participation.
IV05: Environmental psychological factors refer to the two fundamental feelings of the residents to their high-rises, namely, the safety concern and privacy satisfaction of living in high-rise housing.
In the meantime, the dependent variable, sense of community, comprises four main psychological categories: the feelings of (a) membership, (b) reciprocal influence, (c) community reinforcement, and (d) shared emotional connection.

Research procedures
On the basis of quantitative approach, this cross-sectional field survey was designed and divided into three major steps as follows: Step 1: Content validity evaluating After hypothesis setting and research tools constructing, the main research instrument, Personal and Environmental Psychological (PEP) questionnaire, was assessed by employing an Item Objective Congruence (I.O.C) solution.The preliminary questionnaire was evaluated and scored (-1, 0, and +1) by a group of five experts encompassing housing researchers and professionals.The results of I.O.C. indicated that none of question items earned an average rating lower than minimum standard (0.6).Nevertheless, some question items were readjusted based on the comments derived from the experts.
Step 2: Reliability of a psychometric test estimating To determine the reliability of the psychological questionnaire, the pilot study was performed along with the revised PEP questionnaire and the Physical Environmental (PE) assessment at one of the randomly selected residential high-rise located in Southern Bangkok area conducive to calculating the internal consistency of the questionnaire.The outcome revealed the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient (α) = 0.847, which was considered as a good internal consistency.
Step 3: Full-scale field survey At this stage, the final PEP questionnaires were distributed to the residents of all sampled condominiums.The respondents were requested to willingly complete all set forth questions involved the personal information based on the variable construct delineated in section 1.4.In the meantime, the PE assessments were administered to evaluate the physical environmental conditions of each condominium.

Sampling technique
Due to a large number of condominiums located in the vast urban area of Bangkok, the multi-stage sampling technique consisted of the following stages was implemented to recruit the participants of this study:

Measu
The PEP q psycholog the respon

Physic
As defined of the cond the proces their indic    Regarding the PE assessment, it appeared that the high selling price condominiums earned the highest average score of the defensible characteristic among others, whereas, the low selling price condominiums received the lowest defensible characteristic scores.The results also demonstrated that the average score of the privacy-supportive characteristic of all three levels: low, middle, and high selling price condos were not dramatically different.However, it was notable that the condominiums in the group of high selling price averagely owned the better score of privacy features than others.Considering the communal characters of the condominiums, it revealed that averagely the condominiums in the group of middle selling price properties received the better score of the communal characteristic than other levels.

Personal and environmental-psychological (PEP) analysis
As the primary dependent variable, sense of community of the respondents was measured by the psychometric scaled questions (rating-scale type: one to five) contained in the PEP questionnaire.The table below demonstrates an operationalization and scoring system of this dependent variable.(See Table 3.)The stepwise method was pursued to achieve the regression model-fitting process acquiescing the final model at the significance level of 0.05 (95% confidence interval).
The results of the MLR analysis indicated that the set of ten predictors from five categories (IV01-IV05) was confirmed being able to explain 29.4% of the variance of the sense of community reported by this sampling group.Aftermath, the tenth model confirmed the predictive equation at R 2 = .294,F(10,1191) = 49.505,p-value = .000.The summary of model-fitting process and estimates are elucidated in Table 7.As defined in Table 8., the predictive regression modeling extracted ten significant regressors from all factor categories hypothesized at the beginning.The statistics described in the table could be interpreted that the predicted sense of community score of the respondents significantly increased by 0.039, 0.023, 0.086, 0.090, and 0.253 for each increasing point of communal score of the building (COMB), social capital and participation score (SOCAP), mental condition score (MHLTH), relationship with neighbors score (RE), and the average score of privacy satisfaction (PRVS) consecutively.On the other hand, the sense of community significantly decreased -3.30E-05, 0.063, 0.062, 0.033 and 0.043 for each person of the population density per km 2 (POP), increasing point of the defensible score of the building (DEFB), privacy-supportive score of the building (PRVB), introversion score (INTRV), and the average of safety concern (SAF) respectively.The predictive equation for the sense of community of high-rise dwellers confirmed by the MLR computation is described below.(1) Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that there were six variables excluded from the final model, namely, Height of building (HEI), Privacy supportive characteristic score (PRVB), Age (AGE), Length of residency (LR), Number of unit's members (UDEN), Spending time at home (TIME), and Health condition score (HLTH).

Influences of urban context on the sense of community
As mentioned in section 3.2, the descriptive statistical results indicated that the sense of community of high-rise residents participating this survey diverged by the particular context of each urban zone of Bangkok.When comparing the average score of the sense of community and its sub-variables reported by residents of each area, the Post Hoc results endorsed that the respondents residing in Zone 2: Central Bangkok significantly retained the weakest sense of community including the feeling of membership, influence, reinforcement, and emotional connection.
Contemplating the urban context and land use policy of Central Bangkok, it is well known that this area is the central business district (CBD) of the city, and of the country.Despite being a hub of amenities, infrastructure, and convenience, people who live in the area of Central Bangkok have to confront several daily life's dilemmas, for instance, a high cost of living, severe traffic congestion, air and noise pollution, etc.A comparative analysis of the dataset defined that Central Bangkok significantly had a double time of population density (13,677 persons/ km 2 ) than the average of other zones of Bangkok (6,244 persons/ km 2 ) at p-value = .000.As well, the dataset analysis confirmed that the high-rise dwellers living in Central Bangkok reported the least frequency of social participation, youngest average age (30 year-old), and shortest length of residency (40.36 months) among other zones significantly at p-value = .000.
These statistical confirmations integrated the demographic data pointed out that a competitive lifestyle, densification, and restless environment could be the cofactors causing them exhaustive conditions and lack of vitality to get involved with their neighbors as well as the temporary intention of residency was implying their unbounded sensation to the community.Additionally, by employing the Cohen's magnitude of effect (f) and statistical power calculation, it is noteworthy to report that there was approximately 100% chance of detecting this small to medium-sized effect of city zoning on the sense of community among this sampling group.(f = .22and Power (1-β) = 1.00 at N = 1206, α error probability = 0.05, Power (1-β) error probability = 0.8)

Influences of level of property on the sense of community
As reported in section 3.3, the economic level of condominiums significantly affected the dwellers' sense of community at the 95% confidence interval.The results of one-way ANOVA calculation confirmed its effects particularly on the respondents' feeling of membership and reinforcement at p-value = .024and .009respectively.The Post Hoc comparisons indicated that the respondents from the low-level condominiums had the stronger feeling of membership and reinforcement with their community than those who were living in high-level condominiums significantly.
Regarding the PE assessment, the communal-characteristic score of the low-level condominiums (2.595/ 5) was slightly higher than the high-level condominiums' (2.486/ 5).Also, surveying the architectural features of these condominiums exposed that the low selling price condos mostly were the semi-gated compound, which not only provided various facilities for their residents but also allowed non-residents to share and access those premises easily.Besides, the locations of such recreational facilities were more accessible and sociopetal.Conversely, most of the high-level condominiums provided fewer recreational facilities only for their residents plus such areas were located exclusively from public sight as much as possible to achieve the highest level of privacy.
According to their dwelling behavioral data, it indicated that the low-level condominiums' residents had been living in their buildings for a longer period (averagely 60 months) than those from the high-level condos (averagely 37 months) significantly at p-value = .000.Moreover, the respondents from the low-level condominiums had the higher average score of relationship with neighbors and spending time at home more than the high-level condominium's residents significantly at p-value = .000.The comparative analysis of the respondents' personality also revealed that the respondents from the high-level properties were likely more introvert than the low-level residents significantly at p-value = .034.
Besides the architectural conditions differed by level of the property, the above-mentioned statistical comparison had signified the impacts of other cofactors that potentially varied the high-rise residents' sense of community, which were further investigated during the causal modeling by the MLR method.
As a single factor, the effect of the level of property on the sense of community per se is still unconfirmed by this study due to the fact that the Cohen's magnitude of effect (f) and statistical power calculation showed that there were less than 80% chances to identify the small-sized effects of the level of condominium on the feeling of membership (f = .079and Power (1-β) = .69),and reinforcement (f = .089and Power (1-β) = .79)respectively.

Interpretation of predictive regression model for the sense of community
The causal MLR model defined in the previous section confirmed that the ten predictors could associatively explain approximately 30% variance of the sense of community among high-rise residents participating in this survey.Notably, the input data of the predictive equation needs to be measured under the conditions of the PEP questionnaire and the PE assessment described earlier.The following sub-sections contributed to discussing these influential factors in more detail.

Urban and community factors
At the urban and community scale, the numerical variable endorsed by the predictive model was the population density.The estimates of this predictor (b = -3.30E-05,β = -.155)apparently indicated that it was inversely related to the respondents' average score of the sense of community at p-value = .000.Predictably, every increasing person of the district's population per km 2 , the sense of community score of the high-rise residents decreased -3.30E-05 (0.000033) significantly.In other words, the more population density of the district at where the condominium was located, the weaker sense of community among the residents was predicted.
The results of this field survey were consistent with previous research and studies, which indicated that the disadvantageous urban lifestyle including the size of the city, density, and heterogeneity of population could cause the overloads of people's cognitive functions, which led to a withdrawal behavior and taking less interest in the community.(Milgram, 1970)

Architectural factors
The MLR predictive model also indicated three main architectural indicators, which predominated the high-rise residents' sense of community significantly.To begin with, the defensible characteristic score of the condominium was defined as the factor adversely affecting the sense of community (b = -.063,β = -.062) at p-value = .013.Following the MLR equation, the more score of the defensible characteristic earned by condominium, the less sense of community of the residents was predicted.Regarding the PE assessment, the rigorous access control, providing surveillance throughout the compound, walls, security guards, and gated territoriality that separated the occupants from the outside environment could discourage the social interaction between the residents and non-residents and negatively affect the sense of community among the inhabitants.
Secondly, the privacy-supportive characteristic score of the building was another architectural feature confirmed deterring the respondents' sense of community (b = -.062,β = -.049) at p-value = .049.It could be interpreted that the respondents' sense of community decreased relatively for each increasing privacy-supportive score earned by condominium.These characters referred to (a) the fewer number of units per floor, (b) the fewer number of occupants per unit, and (c) the sociofugal typical floor plan, which was the most beneficial component for supporting the privacy of the residents.
The communal-characteristic score of the building was the third and only physical feature of the condominium that positively related to the sense of community of the dwellers (b = .039,β = .063)at p-value = .011.The trend of the model suggested that the higher score of communal character earned by condominium, the stronger sense of community among the residents was predicted.In more detail, providing more various facilities for the residents, sharing recreational facilities with the non-residents, and sociopetal layout design for these areas could encourage the social interaction among occupants, which will help improve their sense of community as a consequence.

Personal attributes and dwelling behavioral factors
The most predictive indicator in this category identified by the MLR model was the relationship with neighbors self-reported by the respondents.The regressive equation revealed that this factor positively varied the degree of the sense of community (b = .090,β = .159)at p-value = .000.The interpretation of this result was that the greater score of relationship with neighbors reported by the respondents, their stronger sense of community was predicted.This statistical confirmation was compatible with the theoretical concept and previous psychological research of which the relationship with neighbors was defined as a relevant indicator generating positive outcomes for the residents and community.(Manzo & Perkins, 2006)

Physical and psychological factors
There were three dominant indicators in this category identified by the MLR casual model: demand for privacy/ introversion score, social capital and participation score, and mental health condition score.
The results of the MLR modeling endorsed the degree of introvert personality as one of the factors negatively related to the high-rise residents' sense of community (b = -.033,β = -.127) at p-value = .000.The consonance of statistical outcomes substantiated the psychological mechanism of cultivating people's sense of community, which was built on the social interaction.The results of this field survey affirmed that the sense of community of the high-rise residents was weakened when they tended to be more individualized, introvert, and withdrew themselves from participating public activities.
Social capital and participation behavior of the high-rise dwellers was statistically approved as one of the factors that helped strengthen their sense of community encompassing the feeling of membership, influence, reinforcement, and emotional connection (b = .023,β = .200)at p-value = .000.This result was accordant with the theoretical concept and previous research, which affirmed the intertwining between the different types of social investment, for instance, donation, volunteering, etc. and sense of community of people.(Putnam, 2000) Meanwhile, the physical health condition was excluded from the regression model; the mental health condition was proved out to have an advantageous impact on the sense of community.The interpretation indicated that the greater score of mental health by which the respondents self-reported, the stronger sense of community was forecasted (b = .086,β = .125)at p-value = .000.This positive influence was implying that the mentally healthier assessment after moving-in the condominium was a repercussion of the more emotional security and the more positive attitude towards their home environment encompassing neighbors and community structure.As a consequence, the sense of community of these respondents was greater than those who reported the worse mental health after moving-in.

Environmental-psychological factors
Besides the psychological background of the dwellers, their mental status amid residing in the high-rises was presumed as one of the principal factors altering the degree of the sense of community.As mentioned earlier, the psychological fundamental of a home environment focused in this research encompassed the safety concern and the satisfaction of privacy during living in the condominiums.
In consonance with the hypothesis, the final causal model as well affirmed the negative effect of safety concern on the sense of community (b = -.043,β = -.056) at p-value = .023and the positive effect of privacy satisfaction on the sense of community (b = .253,β = .266)at p-value = .000.The interpretation of this result is that the sense of community score reduced .043for each increasing safety concern score, whereas, the sense of community score rose up .253for each increasing privacy satisfaction score.
Regarding the PEP questionnaire, the respondents who reported the greater concern about the presumptive incidence of crime, behavioral disorders, and emergency in the residential buildings tended to have the less sense of community than those who were feeling more secure.On the other hand, the respondents who expressed more satisfaction of psychological, physical, informational, and social interactional privacy while living in the residential high-rises also had the stronger sense of community than those who feel more unsatisfied.
After performing the Cohen's magnitude and power of effect size (f 2 ), the MLR model for predicting the sense of community, which comprised the above-mentioned ten predictors, achieved an extra large effect size of f 2 = 0.416 which was greater than 0.35 as defined by the Cohen's criteria, and earned the maximum power of 100% chance of detecting (Power (1-B) = 1.00).It was explicit that the MLR causal models extracted from this field survey were highly affirmative for the further implementation.

Conclusions and recommendations
Conclusively, the findings of the causal analysis and the predictive modeling revealed in this research have substantiated the hypothesis predicated on the theoretical concept that the associative effects between various factors both external and internal on the sense of community of high-rise housing residents in Bangkok metropolitan area exist.
Remarkably, the weakest sense of community among this sampling group was reported by the high-rise dwellers living in the central Bangkok area well known as the central business district of the country.As discussed earlier, this phenomenon integrated the demographic data pointed out that the urban lifestyle including the densification and competitive environment entails the social withdrawal and deters the sense of community of high-rise residents as a consequence.In connection with the urban context, the regression model statistically confirmed the population density as the numerical urban factor that negatively impacted on the degree of the sense of community.It was also conspicuous that the sense of community was more flourishing among the residents of the low-level condominiums than others.Thus, instead of judging the quality of condominium by its economic level alone, this research recommends to focus intensely on the physical features and managerial approach of the residential high-rise, which potentially improve the sense of community and psychological wellbeing of the residents.
In terms of architecture, the designs for defensibility and privacy, which are the typical characters of the residential high-rises, were statistically indicated as the physical environmental factors that suppressed the sense of community of the inhabitants.In contrast, to enhance the sense of community of the residents, this research recommends that the communal characters of the building, for instance, the variety of recreational and shared facilities, and the sociopetal spatial planning are the architectural components reinforcing the sense of community.
Besides the aforementioned external predictors, personal dwelling behaviors and psychological background of the high-rise residents also exposed their powerful impacts on the sense of community.The quality of relationship with neighbors, the frequency of social participation, and the healthy self-assessed mental condition, were statistically confirmed to have favorable effects on the sense of community of high-rise occupants.On the contrary, the personal demand for privacy that reflected the individualism and introversion of the respondents was proven to have an adverse consequence on this particular mental status.
As per the outcomes suggested by the causal modeling, to promote the sense of community among the high-rise residents, it was also necessary to strengthen their psychological safety and privacy satisfaction throughout the period of residence.These two environmental-psychological foundations were statistically verified to enhance the residents feeling of engagement with their community prominently.
Finally, since the physical-environmental (PE) assessment and the personal and environmental-psychological (PEP) questionnaire initiated particularly for this field survey had achieved the statistical reliability and internal consistency, therefore, the further exploitation of these two research instruments is strongly recommended.Moreover, the longitudinal research is also worthwhile to profoundly monitor the mental alteration among the residents of this vertical habitat diversified by the distinctive urban ecological and architectural context.

Table 2 .
Summary of Physical Environmental score of eighteen condominiums

Table 3 .
Summary of indicators, question items, and scoring system of the sense of community

Table 7 .
Summary of the model-fitting process for the sense of community According to the final stepwise regression model indicated in Table7., the statistics and estimates of all ten significant predictors are continually described in the below table.(SeeTable8.)

Table 8 .
Predictive regression model for the sense of community