The purpose of this dissertation Project is to identify the effets of urban poverty environments and associated negative area social conditions (high rates of: juvenile delinquency; crime; unemployment; female head of house; welfare assistance; and teenage pregnancy; poor housing quality and age heterogeneity) on elderly residential satisfaction, desired to move, and psychological well-being. The theoretical basis for the study os provided by person-environment relations theory, specifically the ecological model of aging. According to the model, compromised competence and environmental press generate personal problems or needs, and thus become sources of stress for the individual. Empirical evidence shows that interaction between environmental presses and personal competences affects satisfaction with one's housing and neighborhood, which affects desire to move, which, in turn, affects well-being. A brief questionnaire will be administered to subjects via telephone to gather: 1) personal characteristics, including demographics, health related measures, social interaction and dwelling characteristics; 2) subjective assessments of suprapersonal environmental characteristics, including poverty area types, negative area social conditions, and housing characteristics; 3) subjective evaluation of neighborhood satisfaction, housing satisfaction and desire to move; and 4) subjective well-being indices. Objective environment characteristics will be collected from the Bureau of the Census and FBI Crime Reports. Subjects will be 240 non-Hispanic, black and white, male and female, non-institutionalized elderly residents of the City of Cleveland. They will be 60 years of age or older and have English as the primary language. Cleveland has 35 Statistical Planning Areas SPA), each made up of multiple census tracts classified into four types: low poverty; traditional high poverty; new high poverty; and emerging high poverty area type. Five tracts from each poverty area type will be randomly selected, making a total of twenty tracts from which subjects will be drawn. The local contract provider for the Area Agency on Agency servicing each selected tract will be identified. A list of elderly in the area using its services or known to the center will be obtained. Twelve subjects from each list will be randomly selected to achieve a sample size of 240. Pearson correlation and multiple regression statistics will be used to to determine the direct and indirect effects of variables on psychological well-being.
