CUR - The Council on Undergraduate Research

Investigating Well-Being in the Lincoln Neighborhood

Alexa Brock, Jason Ware, Honors College, Purdue University Main Campus, 610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907

This research was conducted to explore quality-of-life indicators from the point of view of local residents in the Lincoln neighborhood in Lafayette, IN. Our main research question was “How do Lincoln Neighborhood residents describe their well-being?” utilizing Veenhoven’s Four Qualities-of-Life framework to guide the research. We conducted qualitative research to collect our data. Specifically, we completed in-depth interviews with the residents, which were recorded with their consent. We then transcribed the recorded responses and utilized an inductive approach to analyze the transcriptions. This allowed us to determine common themes among the conversations. From this analysis, we found that a majority of the residents we interviewed felt distrustful of their neighbors. This distrust stems from the lack of feelings of safety among the residents. Multiple residents mentioned that they wish there was a higher police presence in the area, due to the frequent crime that occurs. Additionally, these safety concerns have prevented the residents of the Lincoln neighborhood from interacting with each other. After considering these findings, we believe increasing the police presence, as well as having more community events held at the Hartford Hub neighborhood center, would increase the trust and community feeling among the residents. Specifically, hosting monthly events following COVID guidelines where the residents can build relationships with each other could expand the feeling of belonging in the neighborhood, which we hope could increase the appreciation of life of the residents. In the future, we plan to work with the Hartford Hub to implement these monthly community events.

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