Abstract
Interactive Tool for Data Collection on Older Adults’ Housing and Neighborhood Preferences
Justin Sola, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and School of Data Science and Society, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Older adults’ housing and neighborhood environments profoundly affect their safety, health, and social connectedness in later life, yet as Americans age, we know little about how older adults weigh complex trade-offs between “aging in place” and relocating to communities with preferred social and service attributes. This project will develop an innovative spatial surveying tool and then use it to capture older adults’ neighborhood nuanced preferences with unprecedented spatial detail. As part of Tool Development, the project will adapt and refine an interactive grid-based survey platform to systematically capture spatial preferences. The tool will allow respondents to assign social, demographic, and behavioral attributes to hypothetical neighbor households arranged on a grid around their own home. We will develop a user-friendly open-source tool (Qualtrics-compatible) that records each placement as coordinate-coded data for spatial analysis. Additionally we will field-test the platform in a national sample of adults with an analytic focus on ages 60+ to examine how late-life individuals balance neighborhood composition, safety, and amenities. Participants will complete a multi-part survey experiment to reveal patterns of inclusion, exclusion, and segregation in their ideal vs. current neighborhood arrangements. This will yield preliminary data on how older adults prioritize neighborhood features, as well as information about their financial status, need for social and other services, and other health and economic considerations, and how these priorities influence desire and willingness to relocate versus “age in place.” By producing a validated beta version of the spatial preference survey tool and rich preliminary data on older adults’ neighborhood preferences. These outcomes will position us to pursue external funding and produce scholarly publications on aging, spatial preferences, and methodological innovation in data collection.