Abstract:

A community is a social life collective composed of residents living in the same geographical area who share psychological and spiritual connections. The formation of communities relies on common psychological foundations among residents and their identification with the community. Western scholars typically use "sense of community" to describe this psychological state, but its theoretical frameworks and measurement tools have multiple limitations when applied to Chinese cultural contexts. Consequently, Chinese scholars prefer the concept of "community identity" and have developed localized measurement instruments. Research on community identity not only helps understand the psychological states of community residents but also provides theoretical support for community governance and psychological well-being construction.
Community identity is defined as a two-dimensional structure comprising functional identity and emotional identity. Functional identity refers to residents' satisfaction with and recognition of community functions, such as convenience, management quality, and environmental conditions. Emotional identity denotes the affective bond and acceptance between residents and their community, manifested as special emotional connections and a sense of belonging. Based on this framework, researchers developed the Community Identity Scale containing 8 items measuring both dimensions. For instance, "Living in this community makes daily life very convenient" and "I highly approve of this community's management standards" assess functional identity, while "My residential community holds special emotional significance for me" and "This community gives me a sense of home" measure emotional identity. The scale demonstrates good reliability and validity across multiple studies and has been widely applied in psychology, sociology, public administration, and other disciplines.
Building on this two-dimensional framework, this paper systematically reviews how resident characteristics and community living features influence community identity, examines its psychological and behavioral consequences, and proposes future research directions. Findings indicate that demographic factors including gender, age, education level, income, and household registration exert varying degrees of influence. Age shows positive correlation with emotional identity, whereas education and income significantly affect functional identity. Community living characteristics like length of residence, housing type, and community environment also shape identity formation. Duration of residence significantly impacts emotional identity, while housing type and community environment operate through "need satisfaction" and "Mutual embedding" mechanisms respectively.
Community identity formation positively influences proximal variables such as neighborhood interaction, community participation, and psychological ownership of community, which subsequently affect distal outcomes including sense of control, life satisfaction, and altruistic behaviors. Despite progress in Chinese community identity research, limitations persist in theoretical construction, inadequate examination of community-level factors, lack of temporal perspectives, methodological homogeneity, and insufficient intervention studies. Future research should improve in five aspects:
Firstly, the theoretical construction of community identity generation mechanisms requires strengthening. The validated two-dimensional structure reveals distinct dimensions: Functional identity relates to "threshold factors" like community type, property rights, education and income, reflecting satisfaction with community functions. Emotional identity emerges from "Mutual embedding" between residents and communities, involving mutual integration of individual life courses and community networks. This Mutual embedding requires time and correlates with age, residence duration, and household registration. The proposed "need satisfaction" and "Mutual embedding" mechanisms require further testing, along with exploring new research questions about cross-level variable interactions, temporal dimensions, shared meaning construction, and agent-environment dynamics.
Secondly, influencing factors of community identity should be explored from both individual and community levels. Research should adopt a person-community interaction perspective using multilevel linear models to investigate how community-level characteristics (property management quality, neighborhood committee performance, service provision) interact with individual variables (life satisfaction, service needs) to shape community identity.
Thirdly, the dynamic evolution of community identity needs to be examined across individual and community temporal dimensions. Longitudinal studies should track identity development across individual life courses (considering survey timing and generational effects) and community histories (construction phases, renovation events). For instance, analyzing how elevator installation in old neighborhoods transforms strangers into community members. Dynamic reciprocal relationships between identity, neighborhood interaction, and participation should also be examined.
Fourthly, the characteristics of community identity should be clarified through both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Quantitative studies should incorporate person-centered analyses like latent profile analysis to identify identity subgroups. Qualitative research should employ interviews, case studies, and digital ethnography to assess policy implementation and inform theory building.
Finally, evidence-based intervention experiments and localized action research rooted in community-specific knowledge should be advanced. Evidence-based interventions should target distinct mechanisms: Enhancing emotional identity through interdependent self-construal priming. Action research should engage residents and workers in solving practical issues (e.g., using photovoice methods for waste sorting challenges), simultaneously improving governance and fostering identity.
Cultivating community identity serves as a crucial pathway for advancing community psychological well-being, shifting current governance paradigms from institutional overemphasis to human-centered psychological objectives.

Key words: community identity, neighborhood interaction, community participation, community governance