Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

2-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Psychology

Advisor

Setha Low

Committee Members

Melissa Checker

Terry Huang

Leigh Graham

Tomo Imamichi

Subject Categories

Digital Humanities | Environmental Public Health | Leisure Studies | Other Psychology | Physical and Environmental Geography | Urban Studies and Planning

Keywords

three article dissertation, public health, environmental psychology, user generated content, rapid ethnographic assessment procedure (REAP), mixed methods

Abstract

This three-article dissertation brings environmental psychology themes and questions to a large-scale public health research project about a subset of community parks and park renovations in low-income neighborhoods in New York City (NYC). What attributes and perceived aspects of the physical and social environment of parks and their neighborhoods are associated with higher park use? How do residents of gentrifying low-income neighborhoods feel about park renovations that took place in their communities? What can be learned from parks, park renovations and place attachment from exploring user-generated content in the Google Maps platform? Each of the articles presented in this dissertation responds to one of these questions, using different approaches and methods. In the first article, individual-level data from the Physical Activity and Redesigned Community Spaces (PARCS) study survey, and community-level data collected from multiple NYC public databases are used to run a multiple linear regression and a Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) model to identify associations between self-reported and observed park use and a series of physical and social environment factors. The findings show that attributes of the physical and social environment (number of facilities, number of events in the park, stop-and-frisk count), but not of the perceived physical environment (park satisfaction and perception survey; neighborhood environment walkability scale), are associated with park use. The social environment of parks was significantly associated with park use both at the individual and community levels. The second article explores urban environmental justice issues associated with park renovations in low-income, gentrifying neighborhoods. Sixty-six park users from four different parks were interviewed in the Fall of 2019, and asked about the parks, the park renovations, and the neighborhoods. Findings show that, although park renovations represent an improvement in terms of access to parks of quality, and despite the fact that park users were overwhelmingly satisfied with the results of the park renovations, there were a number of important distributional, procedural and interactional justice issues that require attention. For example, some participants were concerned about increased rents now that parks and neighborhoods were changing for the better; others complained about not knowing about planning meetings, or about the removal of facilities they used in the parks; and some complained about lack of surveillance and about conflicting uses of the park, such as adults smoking and drinking in the same place children are playing. Lastly, the third paper analyzed 4607 Google Maps ratings and 1959 reviews of parks in low-income neighborhoods in NYC. A taxonomy of place attachment was proposed which distinguishes between affective, behavioral, cognitive, and identity-related attachment. Reviews were coded for themes, place attachment, and sentiments. Findings show that the majority of park reviews on Google Maps are positive, and one-third of them indicate place attachment. Other findings show that renovated parks have a higher proportion of reviews, positive and mixed reviews, and all types of place attachment except for identity-related attachment. Renovated parks also have a higher proportion of expressions of park alienation. Regarding themes, the physical environment, city authorities and park management are relatively more prominent in renovated parks reviews, while the social environment and the neighborhood are relatively more prominent in non-renovated park reviews. Positive reviews are relatively more frequent after renovations and negative reviews are more frequent before renovations. Cognitive attachment was relatively higher post-renovation while affective attachment was relatively higher during park renovations. The dissertation offers policy recommendations to address many of the issues identified throughout the articles, and also proposes pathways for follow-up research.

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