What is the Strength of the Link Between Objective and Subjective Indicators of Urban Quality of Life?

Urban quality of life is usually measured by either subjective indicators using surveys of residents' perceptions, evaluations and satisfaction with urban living or by objective indicators using secondary data and relative weights for objective indicators of the urban environment. However, rarely are subjective and objective indicators of urban quality of life related to each other. In this paper, these two types of indicators were linked using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to both locate respondents to the “2003 Survey of Quality of Life in South East Queensland” and also to gather objective indicators about their urban environment within the region with regard to services, facilities and overcrowding. Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), the strength of the relationships between these objective indicators and subjective indicators was examined. The results show that relationships between objective and subjective indicators of urban QOL can be weak, and suggests care should be taken when making inferences about improvements in subjective urban QOL based on improvements in objective urban QOL. However, further research is needed into the links between objective and subjective indicators of urban QOL including examining other aspects of the urban environment, non-linear relationships, and moderating effects for individual differences.

[1]  Robert Rogerson,et al.  Indicators of Quality of Life: Some Methodological Issues , 1989 .

[2]  Robert A. Cummins,et al.  Objective and Subjective Auality of Life: an Interactive Model , 2000 .

[3]  K. Deneve,et al.  Happy as an Extraverted Clam? , 1999 .

[4]  Muris Cicic,et al.  A method for assessing residents' satisfaction with community-based services: a quality-of-life perspective , 2000 .

[5]  Frank M. Andrews,et al.  Social Indicators of Well-Being , 1976 .

[6]  R. Stimson,et al.  Testing a Moderated Model of Satisfaction with Urban Living using Data for Brisbane-South East Queensland, Australia , 2005 .

[7]  P. Varca,et al.  A Comparison Between Bottom–Up, Top–Down, and Bidirectional Models of Relationships Between Global and Life Facet Satisfaction , 1989 .

[8]  S. Joseph,et al.  Big 5 correlates of three measures of subjective well-being , 2003 .

[9]  L. Anselin,et al.  Toward Spatially Integrated Social Science , 2000 .

[10]  M. Joseph Sirgy,et al.  How Neighborhood Features Affect Quality of Life , 2002 .

[11]  Richard E. Lucas,et al.  Subjective Weil-Being: Three Decades of Progress , 2004 .

[12]  A. Bowling,et al.  Towards the Good Life: A Population Survey of Dimensions of Quality of Life , 2001 .

[13]  G. Blomquist,et al.  New Estimates of Quality of Life in Urban Areas , 1988 .

[14]  Frank M. Andrews,et al.  Social Indicators of Well-Being: Americans' Perceptions of Life Quality , 1976 .

[15]  E. Diener,et al.  Subjective well-being. , 1984, Psychological bulletin.

[16]  Amos H. Hawley,et al.  Metropolitan America in contemporary perspective , 1976 .

[17]  Michael F. Goodchild.  NEW HORIZONS FOR THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS , 2000 .

[18]  Mark Stover,et al.  Methodological Issues in the Determination of the Quality of Life in Urban Areas , 1992 .

[19]  Bruce Headey,et al.  Personality, life events, and subjective well-being: Toward a dynamic equilibrium model. , 1989 .

[20]  PUBLIC SERVICES AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE , 1999 .

[21]  M. Sirgy,et al.  Further Validation of the Sirgy et al.'s Measure of Community Quality of Life , 2001 .

[22]  A. Wearing,et al.  The impact of life events and changes in domain satisfactions on well-being , 1984 .

[23]  Gündüz Atalik,et al.  Possibilities and Limitations for the Measurement of the Quality of Life in Urban Areas , 2001 .

[24]  A. Wearing,et al.  Top-down versus bottom-up theories of subjective well-being , 1991 .

[25]  F. Strack,et al.  Reports of subjective well-being: Judgmental processes and their methodological implications. , 1999 .

[26]  K. Schwirian,et al.  Modeling urbanism: Economic, social and environmental stress in cities , 1995 .

[27]  P. Huxley,et al.  Studies of quality of life in the general population , 2002 .

[28]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Well-being : the foundations of hedonic psychology , 1999 .

[29]  Norbert Schwarz,et al.  Soccer, rooms, and the quality of your life: Mood effects on judgments of satisfaction with life in general and with specific domains , 1987 .

[30]  P. Converse,et al.  The Quality of American Life: Perceptions, Evaluations, and Satisfactions , 1976 .

[31]  J. Vittersø,et al.  The Conceptual and Relational Structure of Subjective Well-Being, Neuroticism, and Extraversion: Once Again, Neuroticism Is the Important Predictor of Happiness , 2002 .