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Why people move, their well-being or self-assessed quality of life and the impact that this has on the stability of neighbourhoods are linked in many ways. One of the expected outcomes related to the attachment to and meaning of place is the level of intra-urban mobility by individuals and families. Those who have negative or neutral feelings towards the place they reside are expected to experience a greater level of intra-urban mobility. The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between residential mobility and perceived well-being or self-assessed quality of life in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan across three clusters of neighbourhoods representing different socio-economic status (SES) (low, middle and high). The paper begins with a review of the literature on residential mobility and highlights concepts such as the life-cycle, social cohesion and social isolation. It employs data from three sources: a telephone survey collected from residents in 2001, a series of face-to-face interviews and 2001 Census data. The data are analysed statistically using a mixed model approach. The results show that mobility is an important feature of Saskatoon, and that a significant difference exists in the length of residency among the three neighbourhood clusters. However, the analysis indicates that there is no relationship between residential mobility and well-being as measured by self-reported quality of life and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in quality of life (QoL) as an integrated approach to addressing key social, environmental and economic determinants of health. The University of Saskatchewan’s Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR) has examined the process and results of a multi-stakeholder approach to the ongoing sustainability of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan as a healthy city with an improving and a more equitably distributed QoL. Using quantitative and qualitative analysis, this research has examined QoL across three locales in Saskatoon—representing Low, Middle and High socio-economic status neighbourhoods. Two large telephone surveys were conducted with residents of the city in 2001 and 2004. This paper presents the major findings from these two surveys according to four overarching research questions posed by the CUISR QoL team. The questions relate to a number of QoL issues including the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, place related measures, aspects influencing excellent or very good QoL in Saskatoon and feelings of a strong sense of place. The paper also assesses the changes in the results of the four questions between 2001 and 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in understanding how characteristics associated with where people live, in addition to the characteristics of the people themselves, affect health outcomes has risen sharply in recent years. While much of the research examining this question focus on teasing apart effects of place and individual on outcomes, less attention has been paid to examining how individuals’ perceptions of where they live may provide some clues to better understanding the influence of place on outcomes. We present findings from analysis undertaken that incorporate the subjective responses of individuals, residing in three socially contrasting neighbourhoods, to their local environment. Our first question addressed whether perceptions related to neighbourhood and city of residence matter to self rated health and quality of life independent of individual characteristics, while the second question examined whether the perceptions and individual characteristics are modified by the neighbourhood socio-economic context. Our results show that perceived neighbourhood characteristics, in addition to individual sociodemographic factors, are significant correlates of self rated health and quality of life. Moreover, we show that the type of perceived neighbourhood characteristics and the magnitude of their influence on self rated health and quality of life vary depending on whether they live in high- versus low-socioeconomic status neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]