Neighborhood satisfaction and reproductive status

Abstract

Both urban planners and urban scholars have been keenly interested in identifying the characteristics associated with neighborhood satisfaction. One robust but surprising pattern is that the presence or number of children in a household has no effect on neighborhood satisfaction. To clarify this pattern, we measured the neighborhood satisfaction of a representative sample of 1000 Michigan adults, whom we divided into six distinct reproductive statuses: co-parents, single-parents, empty nesters, not-yet-parents, childless individuals, and childfree individuals. We found that a simple parent vs. non-parent dichotomy hides significant heterogeneity among these groups. Co-parents and not-yet-parents both experience distinctively high levels of neighborhood satisfaction, while single parents and childfree individuals experience significantly less neighborhood satisfaction. We also find that population density and COVID-related stress reduce the neighborhood satisfaction of each group in similar ways. We conclude by reflecting on the methodological and practical implications of differences in neighborhood satisfaction when more nuanced reproductive statuses are considered.