Level of Living: Factors Influencing the Homemaker's Satisfaction1

This study was designed to determine factors that influenced the homemaker's satisfaction with the family's level of living. Multivariate regression analysis with successive elimination of independent variables was used with data from nuclear families in two samples. One sample was of 488 “typical” families and the other sample was of 191 “disadvantaged” families. The general hypothesis tested was that the homemaker's satisfaction with the family's level of living is influenced by similar factors for both types of families. In addition, it was hypothesized that the factors having the most influence on “typical” homemakers would tend to be more abstract and less concrete; it was also hypothesized that the reverse would be found in the “disadvantaged” sample. The results tended to support the general hypothesis and the specific hypothesis for the “typical” homemakers. They did not support the specific hypothesis for the “disad vantaged” homemakers. The final regression explained 40 and 39 percent of the variances in the homemaker's satisfaction with level of living for the “typical”a and “disadvantaged” samples, respectively. The adjusted coefficients of multiple determination for both samples were high for cross‐section data, indicating that the method used should be given further consideration by other researchers.