Perceived Neighborhood Quality Research Articles

Neighborhood quality, environmental hazards, personality traits, and resident actions.

A survey of 798 New Jersey residents examined relationships among residents' neighborhood activities, perceptions of neighborhood quality, trust of experts, support for rebuilding cities and equal rights, and degree of optimism. Neighborhood activities increased with lack of trust and optimism. These personality characteristic measures were folded into multidimensional constructs that included local environmental hazards, respondents' ratings of their previous neighborhoods, and some demographic variables. Pessimism and values that support equal rights and rebuilding cities were weakly associated with poor quality neighborhood ratings.

Last in line: Housing assistance for households with children

Abstract This article examines the relationship between receipt of different types of rental housing assistance and housing outcomes for households with children. We rely on the 1989 American Housing Survey (AHS) and a special data supplement that attempted to accurately categorize every assisted renter‐occupied address in the AHS sample as either public housing; privately owned, federally assisted housing; or certificates and vouchers. Housing outcomes examined are physical condition of the unit, crowding, affordability, perceived neighborhood quality, and crime. We analyze three research questions: (1) Do the characteristics of households enrolled in housing programs differ by program type? (2) Do housing outcomes differ with the type of assistance received? (3) Do differences in household characteristics account for observed differences in program outcomes? The analysis suggests that the housing assistance system channels different types of households with children into different housing programs. The ...

Comparing two global measures of perceived neighborhood quality

This article examines and compares two global measures of perceived neighborhood quality: satisfaction and attachment. In doing this, the article expands upon the general satisfaction model by developing and testing a model of perceived neighborhood quality which is appropriate to both of these summary measures. Using survey data, the article demonstrates that satisfaction and attachment are each affected by social interaction in the neighborhood and that each can be distinguished by how strongly it taps the cognitive and affective components of well-being. The article also demonstrates the differential impact of general and local social status variables on each of the global measures as well as the impact of perceived homogeneity.

Neighborhoods as stands in the urban forest

To date, urban forestry has not developed a management approach that is suited to both the capacities of foresters and the realities of the urban context. Neighborhood stands are proposed as the organizing unit for such an approach. A neighborhood stand is defined as a component of the urban forest composed of contiguous trees, along with associated vegetative and environmental components that have relatively homogenous physical, biological, social and perceived characteristics. This paper reports the results of a study investigating the neighborhood stand concept by describing the variation in the character and perceptions of the urban forest in three neighborhoods identified by 22 community service workers in Syracuse, NY. A total of 261 interviews were completed in these neighborhoods. Neighborhoods are investigated for patterns with respect to: (1) household demographics; (2) evaluations of city-wide issues; (3) perceived neighborhood characteristics; (4) desired house and yard qualities; and (5) the physical condition of structures and vegetation. Several neighborhood-related patterns are found to exist. In particular, the perception of neighborhood quality is more related to neighborhood location than respondent characteristics and most related to the physical condition of the immediate surrounding environment.