Life and Neighborhood Satisfaction of Black and White Residents in a Middle-Class Suburb of Johannesburg

Abstract

Prior research indicates that Black South Africans are generally less satisfied with their lives and neighborhoods than White South Africans. 375 Black and 358 White adult residents of a multiracial, middle-class suburb of Johannesburg rated, from 0 to 10, their satisfaction with 9 personal and 9 environmental quality of life domains. Two items, also rated from 0 to 10, assessed satisfaction with life and the neighborhood. Although there were no differences between Black and White suburbanites on life satisfaction scores, the Black group reported being more satisfied with the neighborhood than the White group. Stepwise multiple regression indicated that health and personal safety explained the highest variance in life (29% for the Black group and 43% for the White group) and neighborhood (26% for the Black group and 18% for the White group) satisfaction.