Housing and neighbourhood drivers of social connectedness for youth: a scoping review protocol

The objective of this review is to understand the extent and type of evidence that exists relating to housing and neighbourhood physical and social determinants of social connectedness for youth. Identifying modifiable elements of urban living that influence social connectedness could deliver significant impacts to youth wellbeing. Youth have age-specific developmental and wellbeing needs, and the neighbourhood environment provides them opportunities to make new social connections, test out new identities, and build social competence, sense of belonging and self-esteem. While prior reviews indicate a range of physical and social neighbourhood characteristics influence loneliness and social connectedness in adults, a summary of robust evidence for youth is lacking. With this scoping review, we seek to identify the types of evidence available in the field, explore and summarise this evidence, clarify key concepts and definitions in the literature and provide a conceptual map to inform future research.