Wants and needs for housing change over time as events occur (such as marriage, raising families, career promotions) that cause adults to re-examine their living environments. As people age, this reassessment continues, and alternative housing options may be considered. One housing option that is available to older adults is an independent living retirement facility. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between motivations for moving to independent living retirement facilities and subsequent satisfaction with that environment. The sample for this study consisted of residents of townhomes leased to older adults for age-segregated living in a planned retirement community, with health care amenities on site. The research was conducted in two phases: focus groups were convened with residents of this facility, and a self-administered instrument was developed and sent to all 94 residents of the townhomes. The instrument measured the influences on moving and residential satisfaction on a four-point Likert scale. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple regression. A total of 79 usable responses were obtained from the initial mailing and one follow-up postcard, for a response rate of 84%. There were twice as many women as men in the sample group, and it was evenly divided between married-couple and widowed households. The average age for the residents was 78 years. They were well-educated older adults, and the majority had prior occupations in professional and managerial sectors. The influence on moving that received the highest number of positive responses (>2.5 on a Likert-type scale) was to maintain independence, followed by being free of home maintenance, and the knowledge that health care needs would be taken care of in the future. The residents were satisfied with their overall housing and neighborhood environment, especially with their neighborhood. They were less satisfied with maintenance of the facility and with the management. Two influences on moving emerged as having a positive relationship with residential satisfaction: preference for a homogeneous (age-segregated) community, and a desire to move closer to friends and family. The variables that significantly predicted residential satisfaction were (a) a preference for a homogeneous community, (b) a desire to move closer to friends and family, and (c) the pull of the macroenvironment (i.e., features available, or inherent, in the nearby vicinity of the retirement community that act as pulls, such as mountains, a nearby university, or a rural area), which had an inverse relationship to residential satisfaction. Four individual components of residential satisfaction (housing, neighborhood, maintenance, and management) were analyzed for predictors of satisfaction. One variable predicted housing satisfaction (homogeneous community), none predicted neighborhood satisfaction, five predicted satisfaction with maintenance (environmental concerns, homogeneous community, macroenvironment, future support, and family and friends), and three predicted satisfaction with management (homogeneous community, family and friends, and macroenvironment). The latter three predictors were the same predictors of residential satisfaction, emphasizing a strong relationship between management and residential satisfaction. / Ph. D.

This thesis explores the role of collective cell migration and self-organisation in the development of the embryo and in vitro tissue formation through mathematical and computational approaches. We consider how population heterogeneity, microenvironmental signals and cell-cell interactions facilitate cells to collectively organise and navigate, with the aim to work towards uncovering general rules and principles, rather than delving into the microscopic molecular details. To ensure the biological relevance of our results, we collaborate closely with experimental biologists working on two model systems. First, to understand how neural crest cells obtain directionality, maintain persistence and specialise during their migration, we use computational simulations in parallel with imaging of chick embryos under genetic and surgical perturbations. We show how only a few cells adopting a leader state that enables them to read out chemical signals can lead a population of cells in a follower state over long distances in the embryo. Furthermore, we devise and test an improved mechanism of how cells dynamically switch between leader and follower states in the presence of a chemoattractant gradient. Our computational work guides the choice of new experiments, aids in their interpretation and probes hypotheses in ways the experiments can not. Secondly, to study the self-organisation of mouse skin cells in vitro, we draw on aggregation processes and scaling theory. Dermal and epidermal cells, after being dissociated and mixed, can reconstitute functional (transplantable and hair-growing) skin in culture. Using kinetic aggregation models and scaling analysis we show that the initial clustering of epidermal cells can be described by Smoluchowski coagulation, consistent with the dynamics of the "clustering clusters" universality class. Then, we investigate a potential mechanism for the size-regulation of cell aggregates during the later stages of the skin reconstitution process. Our analysis shows the extent to which this tissue formation follows a single physical process and when the transition to different dynamics occurs, which may be triggered by cellular biochemical changes.