Residential satisfaction by housing type was examined in Cork, Ireland for a sample of 381 females disaggregated into four housing subgroups. These groups differ significantly in their levels of satisfaction, in their perception and evaluation of several neighbourhood attributes, and in their personal characteristics. A regression model of satisfaction for the entire sample explains about 39% of the variation, but this conceals the intergroup differences. Separate regressions for the four groups explain an average of 51% of the variance in residential satisfaction. Residents of public housing and older, street-type housing differ significantly both from each other and from persons living in privately-built homes and speculative estates.
Many studies of residential satisfaction have shown that the effect of residents' personal characteristics is mediated through their perceptions and evaluations of attributes of their neighbourhoods, but have not been able to show how this occurs. A path analysis which treats the personal variables as causally antecedent was tested in Cork, Ireland. This shows neighbourhood satisfaction to be a direct result of four perceived attributes and two personal characteristics, which together explain 38% of the variation in satisfaction. The other personal variables are mediated through these direct causes and contribute indirectly to satisfaction levels.
The relationship between Dubliners' preferences for a sample of residential neighbourhoods and their perception of three characteristics was examined by means of Carroll's preference-mapping hierarchy. Both unconstrained and constrained preferences are described by vector models but there are marked differences between the two. The unconstrained preferences are strongly related to perceptions of social status, but constrained preferences are far more variable and reflect the subjects' assessments of the suitability of the places for themselves. However, the preferences are only tenuously related to the subjects' own personal characteristics.
It is often assumed that community policing will develop as a response to local crime and out of a sense of collective solidarity, although the evidence for both is inconclusive and often conflicting. This was examined in Cork, Ireland, by relating peoples' attitudes to neighbourhood watch and their willingness to participate to their perceptions of local crime, their experiences of it, and their involvement in a range of local community behaviours. Discriminant analyses show that the effect of crime is complicated. Serious crime deters involvement, although when this is held constant, victimisation to some offenses results in a greater willingness to join. Of the community variables, only involvement in a community organisation and strong value orientations encourage participation. Other dimensions, like social interaction and affect for the neighbourhood, have no significant influence.
Studies of residential location have shown that intraurban migrants usually confine their search for a house to areas which they consider suitable and of which they have strong images. Multidimensional scaling was used to examine neighbourhood perception among a sample of residents in Dublin, Ireland. The social status of the neighbourhoods was the most important characteristic perceived, and this was closely related to objective indices of socioeconomic status. The familiarity and housing style of the areas were also considered. There was a high degree of consensus in the perception of these attributes, and individual differences in the importance attached to them were only tenuously related to the characteristics of the respondents. The use of the perceived attributes for the formation of preferences is examined in a second paper.
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