Linking crowding, housing inadequacy, and perceived housing stress

This study sought to explain how housing inadequacy affects inhabitants' experiences of dwelling-related stress. We defined housing inadequacy as the gap between self-reported availability and importance of specific interior features, and we measured stress from self-reported perceptions of efficacy or helplessness with regard to the home. From a survey of 1668 community residents, we found that inadequate retreat and lack of dwelling-related efficacy each mediated the effect of inadequate comfort upon dwelling-related helplessness. Two moderation models, predicting efficacy and helplessness respectively, compared whether respondents reported that their households used all habitable rooms for sleeping. This rooms-ratio metric interacted with the more traditional density metric of persons-per-room; as persons-per-room increased, respondents in households using all rooms for sleeping had a steeper decrease in efficacy as well as a steeper increase in helplessness. We also explored some methodological issues in describing person-environment fit in a demographically heterogeneous sample.

[1]  Harry Heft.  Ecological Psychology in Context: James Gibson, Roger Barker, and the Legacy of William James's Radical Empiricism , 2001 .

[2]  T. Little,et al.  To Parcel or Not to Parcel: Exploring the Question, Weighing the Merits , 2002 .

[3]  Marta Tienda,et al.  Determinants of Extended Household Structure: Cultural Pattern or Economic Need? , 1982, American Journal of Sociology.

[4]  D. Amole.  Residential satisfaction in students' housing , 2009 .

[5]  Jonathan W. Roberti,et al.  Further Psychometric Support for the 10‐Item Version of the Perceived Stress Scale , 2006 .

[6]  Talya B. Rechavi.  A room for living: Private and public aspects in the experience of the living room , 2009 .

[7]  John Archea,et al.  The Place of Architectural Factors in Behavioral Theories of Privacy , 1977 .

[8]  G. Evans,et al.  Cross-cultural differences in tolerance for crowding: fact or fiction? , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[9]  Luis Gómez-Jacinto,et al.  MULTIPLE EFFECTS OF COMMUNITY AND HOUSEHOLD CROWDING , 2002 .

[10]  Home Interiors , 1987 .

[11]  Rachel Sebba,et al.  Territories and Territoriality in the Home , 1983 .

[12]  Hugo Priemus,et al.  Housing As a Social Adaptation Process , 1986 .

[13]  Laurie Buys,et al.  Residential satisfaction in inner urban higher-density Brisbane, Australia: role of dwelling design, neighbourhood and neighbours , 2012 .

[14]  Residential density and psychological health: the mediating effects of social support. , 1989 .

[15]  Stanley Lieberson,et al.  Making It Count: The Improvement of Social Research and Theory. , 1987 .

[16]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[17]  G. Evans,et al.  Motivational consequences of environmental stress , 2004 .

[18]  Margaret Schneider,et al.  Role of Control and Social Support in Explaining the Stress of Hassles and Crowding , 1992 .

[19]  Shelley E. Taylor,et al.  Health psychology: what is an unhealthy environment and how does it get under the skin? , 1997, Annual review of psychology.

[20]  Wendy C. Regoeczi,et al.  Crowding in Context: An Examination of the Differential Responses of Men and Women to High-Density Living Environments∗ , 2008, Journal of health and social behavior.

[21]  Vic Barnett,et al.  Outliers in Statistical Data , 1980 .

[22]  Sherry Ahrentzen,et al.  Space, time, and activity in the home: A gender analysis , 1989 .

[23]  W. Velicer,et al.  Affects of variable and subject sampling on factor pattern recovery. , 1998 .

[24]  John R. Aiello,et al.  Crowding and Personal Control: Social Density and the Development of Learned Helplessness. , 1978 .

[25]  Juan Ignacio Aragonés,et al.  A THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF RESIDENTIAL SATISFACTION , 1997 .

[26]  John W. Tukey,et al.  Exploratory Data Analysis. , 1979 .

[27]  Vicki Been,et al.  State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods, 2005 , 2005 .

[28]  C. Michaels.  Affordances: Four Points of Debate , 2003, How Shall Affordances be Refined? Four Perspectives.

[29]  Sandra J. Newman,et al.  Psychometrics of Housing Quality Measurement in the American Housing Survey , 2013 .

[30]  Wendy C. Regoeczi,et al.  When context matters: a multilevel analysis of household and neighbourhood crowding on aggression and withdrawal , 2003 .

[31]  Ingrid Leman Stefanovic,et al.  Phenomenological encounters with place : Cavtat to square one , 1998 .

[32]  Marino Bonaiuto,et al.  Cross-Validation of Abbreviated Perceived Residential Environment Quality (PREQ) and Neighborhood Attachment (NA) Indicators , 2010 .

[33]  Nancy M. Wells,et al.  Housing and Mental Health: A Review of the Evidence and a Methodological and Conceptual Critique , 2003 .

[34]  Avishai Henik,et al.  SUPPRESSION SITUATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH : DEFINITIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND APPLICATIONS , 1991 .

[35]  Allison De Marco,et al.  Understanding the Impact of Poverty on Critical Events in Emerging Adulthood , 2010 .

[36]  C. C. M. Adriaanse,et al.  Measuring residential satisfaction: a residential environmental satisfaction scale (RESS) , 2007 .

[37]  G. Evans,et al.  Social hassles and psychological health in the context of chronic crowding. , 1991, Journal of health and social behavior.

[38]  D. Stokols,et al.  Residential mobility and personal well-being , 1983 .

[39]  C. Carver,et al.  Anger is an approach-related affect: evidence and implications. , 2009, Psychological bulletin.

[40]  M. Scopelliti,et al.  Choosing restorative environments across the lifespan: A matter of place experience , 2004 .

[41]  Wendy C. Regoeczi,et al.  The Impact of Density: The Importance of Nonlinearity and Selection on Flight and Fight Reponses , 2002 .

[42]  N. Wells,et al.  Housing quality, psychological distress, and the mediating role of social withdrawal : A longitudinal study of low-income women , 2007 .

[43]  N. Shields.  Understanding Place-bound Students: Correlates and Consequences of Limited Educational Opportunities , 2004 .

[44]  Marino Bonaiuto,et al.  Users’ views of hospital environmental quality: Validation of the Perceived Hospital Environment Quality Indicators (PHEQIs). , 2012 .

[45]  Lisa Schurer Lambert,et al.  The phenomenology of fit: linking the person and environment to the subjective experience of person-environment fit. , 2006, The Journal of applied psychology.

[46]  Sherry Ahrentzen,et al.  Double Indemnity or Double Delight? The Health Consequences of Shared Housing and “Doubling Up” , 2003 .

[47]  W. H. Ittelson,et al.  Freedom of choice and behavior in a physical setting. , 1972 .

[48]  S. Jansen.  The impact of the have–want discrepancy on residential satisfaction , 2014 .

[49]  Jennifer E. Glick,et al.  Parents' Coresidence With Adult Children: Can Immigration Explain Racial and Ethnic Variation? , 2002 .

[50]  C. Koebel,et al.  Extended Families and Their Housing in the US , 1999 .

[51]  Darhl M. Pedersen,et al.  MODEL FOR TYPES OF PRIVACY BY PRIVACY FUNCTIONS , 1999 .

[52]  F. Heider,et al.  Principles of topological psychology , 1936 .

[53]  G. Johansson,et al.  Residence in the social ecology of stress and restoration , 2003 .

[54]  Terrence D. Hill,et al.  Household Disrepair and the Mental Health of Low-Income Urban Women , 2011, Journal of Urban Health.

[55]  M. Csíkszentmihályi,et al.  The meaning of things: Coding categories and definitions , 1981 .

[56]  Avshalom Caspi,et al.  Factors Associated with Doubled‐Up Housing—a Common Precursor to Homelessness , 1998, Social Service Review.

[57]  K. Vohs,et al.  Case Western Reserve University , 1990 .

[58]  William A. V. Clark,et al.  Housing Consumption and Residential Crowding in U.S. Housing Markets , 2000 .

[59]  Sheldon Cohen.  Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States , 1988 .

[60]  G. Evans,et al.  Housing quality and mental health. , 2000, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[61]  P. Heslop,et al.  Housing Deprivation and Health: A Longitudinal Analysis , 2000 .

[62]  Henny Coolen,et al.  The Meaning of Dwellings: an Ecological Perspective , 2006 .

[63]  Michael T. Turvey,et al.  The ecological approach to perception , 2002 .

[64]  Harry Heft,et al.  A Psychologically Meaningful Description of Environments Requires a Relational Approach , 2006 .

[65]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  Quantifying Parsimony in Structural Equation Modeling , 2006, Multivariate behavioral research.

[66]  M. Britton.  Race/Ethnicity, Attitudes, and Living With Parents During Young Adulthood , 2013 .

[67]  Lale Berkoz,et al.  Environmental Quality and User Satisfaction in Mass Housing Areas: The Case of Istanbul , 2009 .

[68]  P. Boss.  Primacy of perception in family stress theory and measurement. , 1992 .

[69]  J. Mortimer,et al.  Family structure differences in the timing of leaving home: Exploring mediating factors , 1999 .

[70]  G. Evans,et al.  THE MEANING AND EFFICACY OF SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL AS A STRATEGY FOR COPING WITH CHRONIC RESIDENTIAL CROWDING , 2000 .

[71]  A. Kearns,et al.  Housing Improvements, Perceived Housing Quality and Psychosocial Benefits From the Home , 2012 .

[72]  J. N. Edwards,et al.  Why people feel crowded: An examination of objective and subjective crowding , 1994 .

[73]  G. Evans,et al.  The role of interior design elements in human responses to crowding. , 1996 .

[74]  J. Grice.  Computing and evaluating factor scores , 2001 .

[75]  A. Chemero.  An Outline of a Theory of Affordances , 2003, How Shall Affordances be Refined? Four Perspectives.

[76]  B. Fiese,et al.  A review of 50 years of research on naturally occurring family routines and rituals: cause for celebration? , 2002, Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

[77]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .