Safe and cohesive neighbourhoods promote high neighbourhood social capital

Abstract

Social capital is often used as a reference to create policy and interventions to improve social well-being of the community members. This paper focus on whether social cohesion and perceived neighbourhood safety make a difference to young people's neighbourhood social capital. Young Australians and permanent residents aged 16 to 25 (N=283) participated in this study through an online survey. The findings support previous literature, which found cohesive neighbours and safe neighbourhoods contribute to neighbourhood social capital. These suggest that preventions on crime is as important as creating neighbourhood 'togetherness' in promoting social capital in neighbourhoods.