Residential relocation and life satisfaction change: Is there a difference between household couples?

Abstract

Intra-household differences in the outcomes of residential relocation have been largely overlooked in existing literature. This study focuses on the differences between household couples in terms of life satisfaction outcomes resulted from home relocation. Using data from a two-wave household questionnaire survey in Beijing, this study explores changes in life satisfaction following a residential relocation, and how these changes differ between household couples. Two modelling approaches are adopted: a multilevel modelling framework for the whole sample, and two seemingly unrelated regression equations to estimate life satisfaction changes experienced by male and female household heads separately. By comparing the model results, it shows that there are significant life satisfaction improvements for both household heads and no significant difference in the magnitude of improvements between males and females. That said, life satisfaction increases are explained by improvements in different life domains for couples: improvements in social relationship and neighbourhood physical environment significantly contribute to male household heads' life satisfaction increase, whereas improvements in travel convenience explain female household heads' life satisfaction increase. Findings of this study suggest that policymakers should be aware of the importance of ‘differences’ between not only people of different social groups, but also people of the same households.