Abstract
As noted throughout this book, the study of a psychological sense of community (PSOC) is an important area of interest to community psychologists. Much of this interest focuses on the theoretical model proposed by McMillan and Chavis (1986) in their refinement of Sarason’s (1974) notion of community. While a growing body of research has also examined the sense of place a person may experience, research on PSOC examines a person’s identification with others and a feeling of belongingness within a physical setting (see Chipuer & Pretty, 1999; Hill, 1996). Consequently, a person may experience multiple layers of PSOC, even while residing in the same physical setting (Brodsky & Marx, 2001). For instance, Davidson and Cotter (1998) assessed a PSOC among sub-groups of city residents based on demographics, home ownership, and level of civic involvement. Prezza and colleagues (Prezza & Constantini, 1998; Prezza, Amici, Roberti, & Tedeschi, 2001) reported levels of PSOC and overall life satisfaction among residents of towns and cities. Zaff and Devlin (1998) found that PSOC was strong among residents of garden apartments and high rises.
 Funding for this manuscript was made possible in part by an NIH-Nation Institute for Alcohol Abuse grant award(# AA 12218) and NIH-Nation Institute for Drug Abuse (#DA 13231). The authors express much gratitude to the men and women of Oxford House who devoted time and interest to participate in each of the reseacher project, as well as the numberous students and volunteers who assisted in data collection and analysis for these projects. The authors also thank Jason Oleniczak and Thara Nagarajan for assisting in preparing this chapter.
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Ferrari, J.R., Jason, L.A., Olson, B.D., Davis, M.I., Alvarez, J. (2002). Sense of Community among Oxford House Residents Recovering from Substance Abuse. In: Fisher, A.T., Sonn, C.C., Bishop, B.J. (eds) Psychological Sense of Community. The Plenum Series in Social/Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0719-2_6
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