The structure and significance of community satisfaction

Residential and community satisfaction have been studied for many decades in an effort to understand human commitments to local places. In more recent years, concepts that more nearly reflect commitment have been developed, among them place attachment. Yet, the extensive, prior work on empirical indicators of satisfaction give that concept a particularly useful entry into studies of experiences of place, even though these may only provide estimates of phenomena of deeper commitment. The present study is drawn from the data for a large-scale investigation of the meaning ofcommunity in metropolitan America. Based on 2,622 women and men from 42 municipalities in 10 SMSAs across the United States, the study includes a sample of all socioeconomic statuses and from minority as well as majority populations. On the basis of factor analyses of a wide array of evaluations and satisfactions with housing, neighborhood, and the wider community, a structure for community satisfaction has been delineated. On the basis of these community satisfaction factors, along with several other social role and personality variables, an estimate is provided of the personal significance of community satisfaction in people's lives, using life satisfaction as the dependent variable. While there are socioeconomic status and other variations, community satisfactions appear to be important influences on life satisfaction at all socioeconomic status levels.Requests for reprints should be addressed to Marc Fried, Dept. of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167.The now defunct Center for Metropolitan Studies of the National Institute of Mental Health was most helpful, not only in funding this study but in many other respects as well. The author is also grateful to the many people who participated in the large-scale study of which this paper represents only a small part. In particular, John Havens and Lorna Ferguson were most important to the achieving of the objectives of the study.