The Impact of Perceived Community Environmental Quality on Residents’ Psychological Well-Being from the Perspective of Homo Urbanicus Theory: The Mediating Role of Perceived Environmental Restorativeness and Age Differences Among Older Adults

With the advancement of healthy city development and community renewal practices, the influence of perceived community environmental quality on residents’ psychological well-being has attracted increasing attention. Previous research has shown that the built environment is closely related to residents’ well-being; however, most studies have focused on objective spatial elements or facility provision and have paid insufficient attention to the mechanisms through which subjective environmental perceptions operate in the process by which the environment affects psychological well-being. From the perspective of Homo Urbanicus theory, this study takes 36 communities in Yangpu District, Shanghai, as cases and uses data from 882 valid questionnaires. Structural equation modeling is employed to examine the relationships among perceived community environmental quality, perceived environmental restorativeness, and residents’ psychological well-being, and to further explore age-related patterns among young-old, middle-old, and oldest-old groups. The results show that perceived community environmental quality has a significant positive effect on residents’ psychological well-being and produces a significant indirect effect through perceived environmental restorativeness. Exploratory age-stratified analyses further suggested different pathway patterns among the young-old, middle-old, and oldest-old groups. On this basis, the study further proposes a four-quadrant model of spatial contact opportunities and a five-category accessibility classification and accordingly develops community environment optimization strategies for older adults of different ages. The findings provide a theoretical basis and practical reference for healthy-community development and age-friendly community renewal.