Evaluación del sentido de comunidad y su variación según las características del contexto geográfico costarricense.

The construct sense of community has acquired great relevance in urban studies due to its connection with an improvement of quality of life, collective efficacy, and residential satisfaction. This study sought to evaluate the stability of the construct sense of community in a Latin American context based on the MTSOCS scale (Prezza et al., 2009). It also sought to identify potential associations between the variables measured by the scale, and the geographical distribution. A cross-sectional exploratory study was carried out with a sample of 394 residents (M Age = 43.6, SD Age = 16.1) of the canton Flores, in Costa Rica. Data collection was carried out through a questionnaire, with a door-to-door procedure. The results of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis provided evidence of validity of the MTSOCS scale. Also, the results of maps with the geographical distribution of the data showed the presence of patterns associated with physical-spatial characteristics of the territory. The above confirms the association of urban attributes with the sense of community of the population, and the importance of combining the scale with geographic information systems, to improve the understanding of the construct and its application in urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]