Residential place attachment as an adaptive strategy for coping with the reduction of spatial abilities in old age
This study intended to test whether attachment to one's own residential place at neighborhood level could represent a coping response for the elderly (consistently with the "docility hypothesis"; Lawton, 1982), when dealing with the demands of unfamiliar environments, in order to balance their reduction of spatial abilities. Specifically, a sequential path was tested, in which neighborhood attachment was expected to play a buffer role between lowered spatial competence and neighborhood satisfaction.