How neighborhood features affect quality of life

In this paper we report on the development of three conceptual models that explain how satisfaction with neighborhood features affect residents' quality of life (life satisfaction). The first model posits that satisfaction with social, economic, and physical features of the neighborhood affects life satisfaction through the mediation effect of one's overall feelings toward the neighborhood. That is, satisfaction with the social, economic, and physical features tend to contribute to one's overall satisfaction with the neighborhood (neighborhood satisfaction), which in turn plays a positive role in overall feelings toward life (life satisfaction). Survey data from a variety of communities located in southwest Virginia were collected, and the data failed to provide support to this model. The second model posits that satisfaction with the neighborhood features (social, economic, and physical) does affect life satisfaction through a hierarchy-of-satisfaction effects - satisfaction with the neighborhood features impacts neighborhood satisfaction, which in turn affects community satisfaction and housing satisfaction. Housing satisfaction, in turn, affects home satisfaction. Both home satisfaction and community satisfaction, in turn, affect life satisfaction. The survey data failed to support this model too. The third model posits that satisfaction with different features of the neighborhood (social, economic, and physical) affect different domain satisfactions, which in turn affect life satisfaction. Specifically, the model argues that satisfaction with the physical features affects both neighborhood satisfaction and housing satisfaction. Neighborhood satisfaction plays a role in community satisfaction, whereas housing satisfaction plays a role in home satisfaction. Both community satisfaction and home satisfaction, in turn, play a role in life satisfaction. Satisfaction with the social features of the neighborhood plays a role in the satisfaction with the neighborhood and the community - the latter feeds into life satisfaction. Satisfaction with the economic features of the neighborhood plays a role in the satisfaction with the house and home - the latter feeds into life satisfaction. The data were mostly supportive of this model.