Abstract
Architectural and environmental psychology literature has shown the importance of urban design in provoking stress feelings or enhancing well-being and quality of life. The aim of this contribution is to show the main results of a set of cross-cultural survey studies concerning the perceived quality of urban features at the neighbourhood level. A questionnaire was used including the extended or the short version of the 11 scales measuring Perceived Residential Environment Quality Indicators (PREQIs), which cover architectural, social, functional, and contextual aspects. Both versions of PREQIs showed a similar factorial structure and a good (or at least acceptable) reliability across different geographical contexts, even though some differences emerged in those countries that are more distant from the Western linguistic and cultural milieu. The development of tools like PREQIs should increase a “user-centred” vision on urban issues.
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Notes
Samples were balanced for gender and age classes.
Cronbach’s alpha coefficients are dependent on the number of items, i.e. with the same intercorrelation among the items, the lower the number of items, the lower is the alpha value.
In the case of two-item factors, the significance of Pearson’s r bivariate correlation was considered for testing the factors’ internal consistence.
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Bonaiuto, M., Fornara, F., Alves, S. et al. Urban environment and well-being: cross-cultural studies on Perceived Residential Environment Quality Indicators (PREQIs). Cogn Process 16 (Suppl 1), 165–169 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-015-0691-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-015-0691-z