Liu, Shen and Xia model place attachment as the mechanism through which neighbourhood social cohesion can become individual life satisfaction. Using questionnaire data from 301 urban residents and PLS-SEM, the study finds that cohesion strengthens attachment and that attachment mediates its relationship with wellbeing. Place dependence is particularly important, mediating the effects of neighbourliness, sense of community and neighbourhood attractiveness on life satisfaction. This emphasis on dependence gives appropriation a functional dimension: people become attached not only because a neighbourhood symbolises identity but because it reliably supports daily life, relationships and desired activities. The paper also situates these dynamics within urban micro-regeneration, where improvements to public space, pedestrian routes, greenery and facilities can alter social interaction without requiring wholesale redevelopment. Its wider contribution is to connect spatial intervention with social cohesion through an intermediate people–place relationship. Wellbeing is therefore not produced directly by design; it emerges through the ways urban environments become usable, dependable and socially meaningful.
