Social Support and Social Participation among Urban Community in Malaysia

Social participation in community is important in improving the wellbeing of life in city. The elements of social participation in this study relates to knowledge and intellectual, social concerns, sports and recreation, environmental sustainability which are important in encouraging local communities to conduct various activities that can lead to wellbeing of life. This survey study utilized questionnaire as the instrument for this study which involved a total of 2502 samples from various ethnicities that were randomly selected from 6 municipalities in Selangor state in Malaysia. The pilot study for all items in the whole construct was at high level of reliability with the Cronbach Alpha value between 0.803 and 0.946. The findings reveal that family support and local community support were at moderate levels. This suggests that families and communities in the area provide encouragement to participate in activities towards improving wellbeing of life in city. Nevertheless, peer support and social media support are only at moderate level where peers and social media-based activities are still not fully utilized in developing a wellbeing community. This aspect should be addressed by the local authorities in improving the quality of life in the city.