Residents' Satisfaction with Community Services: Predictors and Outcomes

We report on a study that empirically tested a model that integrates the relationships among important determinants and outcomes of residents’ satisfaction with community services. Our model of satisfaction with community services is highly complex. In order to facilitate reader comprehension, we presented the model in five stages. Stage 1 shows the most proximal determinants and outcomes of satisfaction with community services--satisfaction with community conditions (predictor of satisfaction with community services) and community satisfaction (determined by both satisfaction with community conditions and services). Stage 2 adds another outcome to the model, namely community commitment. The model shows that community satisfaction leads to community commitment. Stage 3 adds two additional variables--confidence in local institutions and power in influencing local institutions--to further account for variation in satisfaction with community services, community satisfaction, and community commitment. Stage 4 focuses on factors added to the model to help explain the drivers underlying satisfaction with community conditions. These drivers include satisfaction with neighborhood conditions, neighborhood satisfaction, and housing satisfaction. Finally, Stage 5 adds satisfaction with life domains such as financial life, social life, family life, and work life to help account for additional variation in the model's key constructs. We tested our model using a survey study in a community in the State of Michigan. The results were mostly supportive of the theoretical model.