Residential satisfaction among aging people living in place

Residential satisfaction is a significant topic in environmental psychology yet there is little research on residential satisfaction among elders. This research aims to identify the cognitive structure of residential satisfaction of elderly persons living in their own dwellings and to identify demographic and psychological variables related to this residential satisfaction. One hundred and three participants, ranging in age from 72 to 86 years old and living at home in the central France, answered (a) a purpose-developed questionnaire to measure their residential satisfaction, (b) an environmental quality questionnaire aimed at evaluating both the physical and social environments, and (c) several psychological variables including: the ESV, a French adaptation of the Satisfaction with Life Scale which examines the general well-being of aging people; and three single well-being items assessing financial well-being, perceived health, and perception of oneself as active. The results indicated that in this sample, residential satisfaction corresponds to a four-dimension structure organized by physical location rather than psychological or behavioral aspects. The four components were the local area, access to services, relations with neighbors, and the home itself. Satisfaction with each component was related to different predictors, supporting the idea that elders hold complex and nuanced views of their homes and neighborhoods. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The relation between people and their residential environment is a significant topic in environmental psychology, possibly because home environments are one of the most salient environments in human experience (Lawrence, 2002; Tognoli, 1987). For elders e especially those with physical and financial limitations e home is often the central focus of their days, making it evenmore important to understand the personal and environmental predictors of residential satisfaction. There is a growing literature on factors that support elders’ aging in place, but it is difficult to identify general patterns of results. The total number of studies is not large; research is done in different countries and among different ethnic groups and typically uses different conceptualizations and ways of measuring residential satisfaction, including shifting between objective and subjective measures. One purpose of the present research is to contribute an additional study to this growing field, using a French sample and scales specifically developed for this sample from indepth interviews. Like other researchers (Apparicio, 2006, p. 42; Bonaiuto, Aiello, Perugini, Bonnes, & Ercolani, 1999; Canter & Rees, 1982; Potter & Cantarero, 2006), we adopt a broad view of residential satisfaction on the assumption that we cannot and should not isolate the