Archived Abstracts 2001
Sense of belonging, stress and depression in
rural-urban communities.
Suzanne McLaren, Belinda A. Jude, Lisa M. Hopes, Tanya
J. Sherritt (27 July 2001)
Refereed Reports-Members Only
Abstract
Living in rural areas has been linked to higher
incidences of stress, depression and suicide. One factor predictive
of such mental health indices is sense of belonging. Sense of
belonging refers to one’s experience of feeling valued, needed and accepted
within one’s environment, and the motivation to be accepted in to that
environment. The current research examined whether rural-urban
differences existed in sense of belonging, stress and depression.
A random community sample of Australian residents was divided in to
four groups, urban (n = 106), regional city (n = 119), regional town
(n = 82), and rural (n = 90). Residents completed the Sense of
Belonging Instrument (Hagerty & Patusky, 1995), the Perceived Stress
Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983), and the Zung Depression
Scale (Zung, 1965). Females were shown to score higher on sense
of belonging than males. Analyses indicated that sense of belonging
was a significant predictor of stress and depression. Results
demonstrated that place of residence made a unique contribution to the
prediction of stress and depression, with less populated areas (more
rural) reporting less symptomatology. Despite previous research
indicating rural residents experience more mental health problems than
urban residents, the current study failed to show differences in the
key mental health correlate of sense of belonging.
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