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Towards a New Concept of Residential Well-Being Based on Bottom-Up Spillover and Need Hierarchy Theories

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A Life Devoted to Quality of Life

Part of the book series: Social Indicators Research Series ((SINS,volume 60))

Abstract

This chapter reviews the various conceptualizations of residential well-being and introduces a new conceptualization. The new concept of residential well-being is defined as satisfaction with one’s living arrangement captured by one’s home and its immediate surrounding (i.e., community) to the extent that this satisfaction contributes to the sense of well-being in seven major life domains, namely health/safety, financial, family, social, work, leisure/arts/culture, and education/personal development, which in turn all contribute to the overall sense of subjective well-being. The sense of well-being in major life domains such as health/safety, financial, and family life serves to meet basic needs a la Maslow (low-order needs related to survival such as biological and safety needs). In contrast, satisfaction in other life domains such social, work, leisure/arts/culture, and education/personal development serves to meet growth needs (again a la Maslow; high-order needs related to human flourishing). Thus, housing and community amenities play a significant role in each of the aforementioned life domains contributing to domain satisfaction, which in turn contribute to overall life satisfaction. Within a given life domain, satisfaction with housing and community amenities contribute to positive/negative affect within that domain. Based on this conceptualization of residential well-being, survey measures can be developed and tested to establish the reliability and validity of this construct.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There are other conceptualizations of residential well-being at the community level. Here is another example, namely community pride (e.g., Baker and Palmer 2006). Community pride in this sense refers to the positive feelings of attachment residents feel about their community and their feelings of satisfaction with the community at large. Other research has focused on the sense of community (e.g., Yetim and Yetim 2014).

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  1. Department of Marketing, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 880 West Campus Dr, Blacksburg, VA, 24061-0236, USA

    M. Joseph Sirgy Ph.D.

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  1. Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti" (DiSIA), Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy

    Filomena Maggino

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Sirgy, M.J. (2016). Towards a New Concept of Residential Well-Being Based on Bottom-Up Spillover and Need Hierarchy Theories. In: Maggino, F. (eds) A Life Devoted to Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 60. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20568-7_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20568-7_9

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