| Abstract: | Three competing theories of how urbanism affects social-psychological well-being are tested using data from London, England; Los Angeles, California; and Sydney, Australia. Path analyses are conducted using visiting friends, visiting kin, and marriage companionship in the different paths. It is found that determinist theory can be rejected because most-urban people do not have fewer social relations than less-urban people; in fact, they may have more. Subcultural theory received some weak but mixed support, and compositionalist theory generally is not supported. The three metropolitan areas do not differ markedly from each other in the paths they show. The best predictor of well-being is the quality of people's social relationships. |
