How Community Public Space Promotes Older Adults’ Social Health: An Intra-Community Study of the Mediating Role of Social Activities

Abstract

Against the background of healthy aging, age-friendly communities, and social sustainability, community public spaces are important everyday settings for older adults’ outdoor activities and social connections. However, it remains insufficiently explained how public space environments are translated into social health benefits through specific social activities. From an environment-behavior-health perspective, this study examines Chongwen Jincheng Community in Nanjing through a concentrated sample design within a single large community. Based on 217 valid questionnaires from residents aged 60 years and above, an AMOS latent-variable structural equation model was constructed, and a standardized composite-variable Bootstrap model was used for robustness checking. The results show that the community public space environment has a significant total association with older adults’ social health. After social activities are included, the direct associations between traffic convenience, environmental comfort and safety, service facility supportiveness, and social health become non-significant, whereas multiple indirect paths through social activities remain significant, supporting a full mediation pattern in this case study. Traffic convenience is mainly linked to social health through passive and brief social interaction, environmental comfort and safety through brief and sustained social interaction, and service facility supportiveness through passive and sustained social interaction. These findings suggest that, within the cross-sectional SEM framework, the social health value of community public spaces is mainly linked to everyday encounters, weak-tie contact, brief communication, and sustained participation.