Measuring Well-Being: Trial of the Neighbourhood Thriving Scale for Social
Well-Being Among Pro-Social Individuals
#MMPMID34723099
Baldwin C
; Vincent P
; Anderson J
; Rawstorne P
Int J Community Wellbeing
2020[]; 3
(3
): 361-390
PMID34723099
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We report on a trial of the neighbourhood thriving framework (NTF), a conceptual
framework from psychology and social science for measuring collective subjective
social well-being. It combines the notions of feeling good and functioning
effectively in a neighbourhood social environment in an indicator set of 15
conceptual dimensions. An online questionnaire was used to measure neighbourhood
thriving (NT) among 212 pro-social volunteers involved in revitalising
neighbourhoods in the UK city of Stoke-on-Trent between May and October 2018.
Exploratory factor analysis revealed 11 factors that made conceptual sense
including three social epidemiological pathways to well-being, networks,
participation and pro-social behaviours, and four criteria for flourishing
societies, autonomous citizenship, safety, cohesive communities and resilience.
The 11 sub-scales of NT showed satisfactory internal consistency reliability and
preliminary evidence of construct validity. The sub-scales were used tentatively
to examine NT among the volunteer sample, which showed the highest sub-scale
score for Positive Regard and the lowest score for Celebration. Different levels
of NT were observed among the community, with age and income positively
associated with higher levels of NT. Further validation work is needed before the
NT scales can be used with confidence. Validated scales offer potential benefits
including: measuring NT pre- and -post project implementation; establishing which
dimensions of NT are, and are not, working well in a community and need
strengthening through further initiatives, and establishing which specific groups
of people are experiencing lower levels of NT and designing projects that meet
their needs.
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