Community service satisfaction and stages of community development: An examination of evidence from impacted communities

Abstract

The study attempts to establish how the levels and dimensions of community service satisfaction differ with stages of economic development and community population characteristics. This study examines levels of service satisfaction for 1400 respondents in nine western communities, by developmental types through descriptive analysis, analysis of variance, and factor analytic techniques. The analysis indicates that both new and longtime residents in currently developing communities are more dissatisfied with community services than residents in either pre‐ or post‐development communities, that differences in levels of satisfaction are not the result of differences in the characteristics of residents, but are significantly related to the stage of community development, and that the dimensions of service satisfaction also vary with the stage of development. Further analyses of the effects of stages of development on service satisfaction are suggested.