Abstract: As the link of people and particular places, place attachment has been one of the vital issues in the literatures of ethnology, human geography, tourism studies and environmental psychology since 1970s. Antecedents and consequences of place attachment have been widely studied, however, there is little attention paid to the contribution of restorative environment to people’s place attachment. According to Person–process–place organizing framework defining place attachment, we assumed that restorative experience, deriving from the contact between people and restorative environment, played an important role in the “process” dimension of place attachment. Therefore, this study was designed to combine the two perspectives: restorative environment with place attachment. In the present study, the relation between restorative experience and place attachment has been analyzed. Then, we examined the psychological mechanisms underlying this relation by investigating the mediating role of environment preference as well as the moderating role of length of residence in a context of Chinese neighborhood. In this study, a questionnaire survey has been conducted in four urban neighborhoods in Shanghai, China. The measured variables are restorative experience (PRS_5) occurring in the current neighborhood, environment preference and place attachment (i.e. place dependence and place identity) towards the neighborhood, and the length of residence. Finally, a sample consisting of 410 participants’ data (262 females) has been used. The average age is 29.26 years (SD = 11.35), and the average length of residence is 16.79 years (SD = 14.91).The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the above measures are from .76 to .93. In order to test the mediating effects of environment preference on the relation between restorative experience and individuals’ place attachment as well as the moderating role of length of residence, structural equation modeling and moderated mediation analysis have been introduced respectively. The findings show supporting evidence for the hypotheses. Firstly, in the lives of residents in the urban neighborhood, restorative experience exerts positive effects on place attachment significantly. Secondly, environment preference fully mediates the effect of restorative experience on place attachment. Meanwhile, in line with the prior researches, place dependence plays a basic role in the construct of place attachment, which predicts place identity positively. Thirdly, length of residence moderates the effect of environment preference on place attachment (place identity in particular), specifically, environment preference has more impact on people’s place identity, when they have reside long (vs. short) time in current neighborhood. The present study seeks to extend the literature integrating restorative environment and place attachment in a synergic perspective. The results demonstrate that restorative features of neighborhood environment, which trigger restorative experience, will promote the development of individuals’ place attachment. Based on place theory, we suggest that whether people prefer the neighborhood would explain the process from restorative experience to place attachment. Second, we develop a moderated mediation model to account for how the interaction between environment preference and length of residence exerts influence on people’s place identity. Specifically, people who live in a neighborhood for a long (vs. short) time would be more likely to establish place identity from environment preference.

Key words: place attachment, restorative environment, restorative experience, environment preference, length of residence

摘要： 探究源自环境的恢复体验（如，放松、平静等）对居住者地方依恋（包括地方依赖和地方认同两个维度）的预测作用，并分析其中的内在过程与情境条件。采用问卷研究法(N=410)，结果发现：（1）恢复体验能显著正向预测个体地方依恋；（2）环境偏好在恢复体验与地方依恋之间起完全中介作用；（3）居住时长调节环境偏好与地方依恋（主要是地方认同）之间的关系。研究将有助于探寻环境心理学视角下的压力管理与城市管理协同路径。

关键词: 地方依恋, 恢复性环境, 恢复体验, 环境偏好, 居住时长