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Objective quality of life indicators and the external validity of community research findings

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Abstract

We assessed how representative the objective quality of life in our research community was in order to provide a basis for judging the external validity of environmental-behavioral research findings that will emerge from future investigations. We also provided a methodology of evaluation that could be duplicated by other community study groups. The central city and county units of a U.S. Midwestern metropolitan area were categorized into four geographic reference zones with structural attributes that differentiated them along a city-suburban-rural continuum. Within this geographic frame-work, we were able to evaluate how eleven major categories of our community's quality of life compared, and to unambiguously assign the community's quality of life a position along the city-suburban-rural continuum.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Chicago, 60637, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Stephen M. Golant & Allan L. McCutcheon

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, 60637, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Stephen M. Golant & Allan L. McCutcheon

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  1. Stephen M. Golant
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  2. Allan L. McCutcheon
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Additional information

The research reported here was supported by grant No. PFH5 P01 AG00123-02 from the National Institute on Aging.

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Golant, S.M., McCutcheon, A.L. Objective quality of life indicators and the external validity of community research findings. Soc Indic Res 7, 207–235 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00305599

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00305599

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