Determinants of Place Attachment Among Rural Youth

Valiollah Rostamalizadeh

Abstract                            

Attachment to a place - peoples' emotions, feelings and belongings to a place - is one of the features that encourages people to participate and invest there. The aims of this study is investigating determinants of attachment to place among rural youth. By descriptive method, and factor analysis, the present research attempts to sort related variables with place attachment. The population of study include 15-30 years old rural youth of Osku and Hashtrud districts of East Azerbaijan province. The sample size was 769. The results showed that nine factors were related to place attachment which could explain 53% of attachment to place variance. These variables include "Environment and Nature of village", "fulfilling the needs / meeting the needs", "sense of identity", "participation in community affairs", "satisfaction from the village", "having a good job", "sense of freedom and satisfaction from people", " responsibility" and "relationship with neighbors and kinsfolk".

Keywords: Place Attachment, Rural, Youth, Osku and Hashtrud Districts