Search

Data collected via a Wisconsin statewide survey of randomly selected adults (N=548) were used to test the hypothesis that size of place is inversely related to community attachment in an ideational sense and that size of place has no clear association with participatory measures of attachment (i.e., contrary to the "linear development" perspective of Wirth and the "systemic" model of Janowitz and associates, differences in community attachment are regarded as more or less independent of social and family bonds). The variables employed were education, income, age, size of place of residence, length of residence, social participation with relatives, social participation with friends, organizational membership, community solidarity, and community satisfaction. Results indicated: rural residence was positively associated with dependent measures of community attachment; measures of participatory attachment to the community were not strongly correlated with community attachment; while age and length of residence were substantially intercorrelated, age had the major direct effect on both community solidarity and community satisfaction; and income had moderately low multivariate effects on attitudinal indicators of community attachment. (JC)

The previous literature on the socioeconomic correlates of environmental concern places great stress on the middle class being more supportive of environmental agendas than the working or lower socioeconomic class. The authors believe that methodological problems in this research and the theoretical implications of the middle class generalization warrant an empirical reconsideration. Social class indicators explain relatively little variance in environment attitudes. Education explains virtually all the variance in environmental attitudes accounted for by "class." Education is subordinate to age as a predictor, and much of the gross effect of education is the spurious result of high educational backgrounds of most young adults. (Author/RH)