Determinants of Neighborhood Satisfaction: A Metropolitan-Level Analysis*

Students of neighborhood satisfaction have traditionally regarded the individual as the appropriate unit of analysis. In this present paper we break with tradition proposing that satisfaction can also be viewed as a property of populations. Data from the 1974–76 U.S. Annual Housing Surveys are employed to test three alternative explanations of variation in aggregate levels of satisfaction across 60 metropolitan areas Consistent with the urban-scale hypothesis, a negative relationship is found between metropolitan population size and the percentage of residents who rate their neighborhoods “excellent.” Further analysis reveals that variables representing the compositional and quality-of-life perspectives affect satisfaction in the expected directions as well: the more residents who are incentive- or resource-deficient and the more residents who perceive local conditions as problems, the lower the level of neighborhood satisfaction tends to be. In terms of relative explanatory power the quality-of-life variables appear dominant, although the persistent effects of the urban-scale measure may prove of greatest theoretical interest.     

Stress,Coping, and Mental Health Differences among Homeless People

People who are chronically homeless are assumed to have higher rates of mental health problems than episodically or new‐entry homeless individuals. It is unclear to what extent early‐life and current stressors account for this disadvantage. Guided by cumulative disadvantage theory and stress research, we analyze data from a national study of the US homeless population to examine how stressors and coping resources throughout the life course are implicated in differences among homeless people in psychiatric disorders and alcohol or other drug abuse disorders. Logistic regression analysis reveals that new‐entry homeless persons are less likely than their chronically and episodically homeless counterparts to have current psychiatric disorders. This is explained by stressors and coping resources experienced in childhood and during adult homeless spells. Alcohol and other drug abuse is common but comparable across the three homeless types and shares an association with selected stress and coping measures. Findings lend credibility to an accumulation of risks perspective, highlighting how past as well as contemporaneous stressors are related to the mental health of homeless people.     

Homelessness and hunger

We employ data from the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients to examine the character and correlates of hunger among homeless people. Our analysis, couched in an adaptation framework, finds more support for the differentiation hypothesis than for the leveling hypothesis: Complex patterns of food insecurity exist at the individual level, and they vary with the resources available (e.g., higher monthly income, regular shelter use) and obstacles faced (e.g., alcohol, drug, and physical and mental health problems). The chronically homeless, who suffer from multiple deficits, appear particularly food-insecure, a finding that favors the desperation hypothesis over its street-wisdom alternative. We conclude that hunger is not uniformly experienced by members of the homeless population. Rather, some individuals are better situated than others to cope with the stressful nature of homelessness when addressing their sustenance needs.     

The revised safe at home instrument for assessing readiness to change intimate partner violence

This article describes the development and factor structure of the Revised Safe At Home instrument, a 35-item self-report measure designed to assess individuals' readiness to change their intimate partner violence behaviors. Seven new items have been added, representing content specific to the Maintenance stage, and other items have been revised to strengthen the assessment of earlier stages and address gender concerns. Confirmatory factor analysis using multisite data (two sites, a total of 281 men at intake) supported the conclusion that a four-factor model (Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation/Action, and Maintenance stages) was consistent with the observed covariances. A high degree of correlation between the Preparation/Action and Maintenance scales was observed, but subsequent testing indicated a need to treat the two as distinct factors in the model. It is recommended that scoring include only 31 items that perform well.     

Racial Diversity and Change in Metropolitan Neighborhoods

This study investigates the changing racial diversity and structure of metropolitan neighborhoods. We consider three alternative perspectives about localized racial change: that neighborhoods are bifurcating along a white/nonwhite color line, fragmenting into homogeneous enclaves, or integrating white, black, Latino, and Asian residents into diverse residential environments. To assess hypotheses drawn from these perspectives, we develop a hybrid methodology (incorporating the entropy index and majority-rule criteria) that offers advantages over previous typological efforts. Our analysis of 1990-2000 census tract data for the 100 largest US metropolitan areas finds that most neighborhoods are becoming more diverse and that members of all groups have experienced increasing exposure to neighborhood diversity. However, white populations tend to diminish rapidly in the presence of multiple minority groups and there has been concomitant white growth in low-diversity neighborhoods. Latino population dynamics have emerged as a primary force driving neighborhood change in a multi-group context.     

The impact of adult child emigration on the mental health of older parents

We explore whether older parents of adult children who emigrate experience, in the short term, increases in depressive symptoms and loneliness feelings compared to parents whose children do not migrate. We use data from the first two waves of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, which is a nationally representative sample of 8500 people aged 50 + living in Ireland. To deal with the endogeneity of migration, we apply fixed-effects estimation models and control for a broad range of life events occurring between the two waves. These include the emigration of a child but also events such as bereavement, onset of disease, retirement and unemployment. We find that depressive symptoms and loneliness feelings increase among the parents of migrant children but that the effect is only present for mothers. As the economic burden of mental health problems is high, our findings have potentially significant impacts for migrant-sending regions and countries.     

The effect of immigrant admission criteria on immigrant labour-market characteristics

The skill levels of immigrants entering the USA has declined in recent decades; however, most immigrants to the USA continue to be admitted on the basis of family contacts, without reference to labour-market characteristics. This situation has given rise to a debate about the criteria on which immigrants are admitted or excluded. I examine how the relative skill levels of immigrants admitted under different criteria vary by country of origin, those criteria being the possession of highly-valued skills and family connections. Using data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Borjas' 1987 model is tested. The results show (a) that the relative skill levels of the two groups do indeed differ by country of origin, and (b) the pattern by country of origin is consistent with the Borjas predictions. The policy implication is that the effects of changing admission criteria will differ by country of origin, but in a predictable way.     

When does an imperfect sampling frame produce more efficient estimators than a perfect frame?

The issue of when imperfect sampling frames can result in more efficient estimators of population totals than perfect frames is explored. Our analysis is based on an expression we call the difference score. We show how, when properly expanded it provides an illuminating basis for comparing a weighted estimator under an imperfect frame with that of a conventional estimator assuming the frame has been corrected. Specifically, the circumstances (i.e., population and frame characteristics) under which an imperfect frame results in estimates of population totals that are more precise than those from a perfect frame can in many cases be discerned by analytically examining the terms in the expansion of this difference score. In addition, a classification tree methodology was used to further explore circumstances under which imperfect frames result in more precise estimators. The results of this analytical study complement, strengthen, and in many cases explain those discovered in an earlier empirical investigation that lead to recommendations as to when to correct a frame or when to adjust for imperfection using a weighting methodology called the arc weight estimator.