Understanding constraints and residential satisfaction among low-income single-parent families

Housing adjustment models theorize that demographic and personality characteristics of families combine to explain residential satisfaction. This article reports the operationalization of several personality characteristics. The Leford Test of Tenant Locus of Control, measures of household planning styles, an index measuring willingness to work to improve residential conditions, an index measuring participation in community activities, measures of expected and of experienced discrimination, and selected demographic characteristics are hypothesized to predict residential satisfaction. Two components of residential satisfaction, housing and neighborhood, are tested in separate regression models. The results suggest that personality characteristics are powerful predictors of housing satisfaction, whereas residential characteristics, feeling safe, and having friends in the neighborhood are powerful predictors of neighborhood satisfaction.