Mediating Role of Community Participation between Physical Environments, Social Relationships, Social Conflicts, and Quality of Life: Evidence from South Korea

While Community participation has been considered as an essential determinant in enhancing the level of quality of life (QOL), few have systemically tested the mediating impact of community participation between physical Environments, social Relationships, social conflicts, and QOL. Using the 2015 Korean’ Conflicts and Cooperation Survey, which is randomly sampled by gender, age, and regions, this research aims to analyzes the mediating effect of community participation between physical Environments, social Relationships, social conflicts, and QOL. The analysis results show that community participation plays a mediating role in increasing the level of QOL among many people with experiences with social conflict. The individuals’ satisfaction with their physical environment and interpersonal relationships directly affects their level of QOL, while their experiences of social conflict does not have an impact on the level of QOL. The findings of this study suggest that the activation of communities can offset negative experiences resulting from social conflicts and improve the level of QOL of individuals in the South Korean context. This research contributes to methodological and theoretical topics in the field of quality of life.