Neighbourhood and Health Effects on Elderly Morale

As the elderly comprise an increasing proportion of the urban populations of Western societies, issues affecting their welfare attract greater concern. Theories of gerontology which focus upon the process of ageing highlight the importance of morale and the ways in which it may be related to key events in the life cycle such as retirement, onset of ill-health, or loss of spouse. These ‘personal’ factors are clearly of fundamental importance, but there are also ‘situational’ factors which exert an influence upon the morale of old people. Residential environments and neighbourhoods fall into this latter group of factors. In this paper a simple recursive model is developed which seeks to examine the extent of influence of situational factors upon morale. The model allows direct and indirect influences to be measured and it tests for the interplay of personal and situational factors. Results show that personal competency has a strong influence upon morale, not just directly but also through its impact on other related factors such as spatial mobility. Empirical data used as input to the model also allow an examination of variations in environmental influences upon morale among different social-class groups.