What Makes People Dissatisfied with their Neighbourhoods?

By A. Parkes, A. Kearns, R. Atkinson. 2002

566 citations recorded by the source corpus.

A logistic regression model of individual neighbourhood dissatisfaction was developed using data from the 1997/98 Survey of English Housing. Housing satisfaction and the general appearance of the neighbourhood were closely associated with neighbourhood dissatisfaction, although perceptions of noise, friendliness, community spirit, schools and crime were also important. Although sociodemographic factors were much less important than residential perceptions in helping to predict dissatisfaction, the type of neighbourhood remained a significant independent predictor of dissatisfaction even when residents' views were taken into account. Some factors were more important in different areas: in particular, residents in less affluent areas were more sensitive to unfriendliness and crime. There were also indications that owner-occupiers were less satisfied in areas where they had a lower tenure share. The paper concludes that neighbourhood policies with a broad spectrum of goals are required, that pay careful attention to residents' own assessments of local conditions.

Subfields: Sociology and Political Science, Transportation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5c673034592c737a8c39c7b7dfdae7b9b30991b5

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Citations in the corpus

Housing satisfaction in medium- and high-cost housing: The case of Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2012, background): “…and other aspects of housing such as housing quality, privacy (social densities), housing services provided by developers such as garbage disposal and safety, and brightness and ventilation of the house (Baum, Arthurson, & Rickson, 2010; Elsinga & Hoekstra, 2005; Hipp, 2010; Parkes et al., 2002).”
Residential Mobility and Neighbourhood Outcomes (2006, background): “Recent research shows that neighbourhood does matter for a number of social outcomes (Burrows & Rhodes, 2000; Ellen & Turner, 1997; Parkes et al., 2002).”
Unhappiness and Crime: Evidence from South Africa (2005, background): “Attitudes towards crime-related issues in the area, i.e. whether or not individuals view local crime to be a problem, has a negative impact on the reported satisfaction with the neighbourhood (e.g. Hartnagel 1979; Parkes et al. 2002).”
Student residential satisfaction in research universities (2011, background): “RS can be predicted by measuring the period of staying in the particular residence (Parkes et al., 2002; Petruzzellis et al., 2006; Amole, 2009a).”
Determinants of residential satisfaction in urban China: A multi-group structural equation analysis (2017, background): “Homeowners tend to be more satisfied with their housing and community characteristics than tenants (Deurloo et al., 1994; Diaz-Serrano, 2009; Parkes et al., 2002) because they generally have fewer incentives to move out of their current community (Dietz and Haurin, 2003; Helderman et al.”
Specifying the Determinants of Neighborhood Satisfaction: A Robust Assessment in 24 Metropolitan Areas (2009, background): “Whereas one study found the expected positive relationship when controlling for the neighborhood social characteristics (Parkes et al. 2002), others have failed to find a significant effect (Bolan 1997, Lee et al. 1991, McHugh et al. 1990, Woldoff 2002), and some have even found a negative effect…”
Do Perceptions of Social Cohesion, Social Support, and Social Control Mediate the Effects of Local Community Participation on Neighborhood Satisfaction? (2011, result): “Second, consistent with previous studies (Lu, 1999; Parkes et al. 2002), we found that income significantly affects neighborhood satisfaction.”
The Relation of Perceived and Objective Environment Attributes to Neighborhood Satisfaction (2017, background): “Although sociodemographics play important roles in many health-related outcomes, Parkes et al. (2002) found that neighborhood environment attributes accounted for more of the variance in neighborhood satisfaction than did demographic factors.”
Understanding Neighbourhood Effects: Selection Bias and Residential Mobility (2010, unknown): “12 (Burrows & Rhodes, 2000; Parkes et al., 2002; Kearns & Parkes, 2003; Permentier et al., 2009).”
Residential Satisfaction in Housing Estates in European Cities: A Multi-level Research Approach (2011, background): “Some of the literature explicitly states that there is a close association between housing satisfaction and estate satisfaction (Parkes et al., 2002).”
Determinants of Neighbourhood Satisfaction and Perception of Neighbourhood Reputation (2011, background): “…regression models not only reveals that perceptions are better predictors of satisfaction than objective variables, but also that some neighbourhood characteristics are not significant after controlling for residents’ perceptions (St. John & Clark, 1984; Parkes et al., 2002; Mohan & Twigg, 2007).”
A Dynamic View of Neighborhoods: The Reciprocal Relationship between Crime and Neighborhood Structural Characteristics (2010, background): “…satisfaction literature have consistently found that residents who perceive more crime are less satisfied with the neighborhood (Adams 1992; Harris 2001; Hipp 2009; Parkes, Kearns, and Atkinson 2002), and those who express more fear of crime are less satisfied (Hartnagel 1979; Sampson 1991).”