The evaluation of effective factors on female students’ residential satisfaction in dormitories

The purpose of the present study was to determine the factors affecting the quality of dormitory physical environment. The research method was correlational and the statistical population has consisted of all female students living in dormitories who totally were 1648 people. The sample size calculation based on Kline’s (2015) recommendation of 2.5–5 cases per parameter demonstrated that for the 29 parameters the sample size required was 150. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 172 female students of the dormitory of Shahid Beheshti University, from October to December 2018. Bachelor, Master and PhD students were selected using cluster sampling method. The respondents were selected from 24 different disciplines and and from faculties of Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Engineering. The students’ residential satisfaction questionnaire was completed by all participants. Respondents ranked their responses among each of the variables by using Likert scale. 150 questionnaires were included in the final analysis after exclusion of 22 questionnaires with missing data. To process information and identify categories of items of questionnaires, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used and five major factors of residential satisfaction in dormitories have been extracted according to the students’ opinion. Results showed that there was a significant positive relationship between residential satisfaction and physical criteria of interior spaces and functions (r=0.361, P=0.01), management and health services (r=0.475, P=0.01), aesthetics and natural lighting (r=0.498, P=0.01), security and social relation (r=0.141, P=0.05) and nature relation (r=0.225, P=0.01). Based on the findings, we conclude that the evaluation of effective factors on satisfaction in dormitory spaces may be useful in the designers’ decision to improve the quality of student housing. As a consequence, the conversion of these qualitative criteria into architectural design suggestions is needed to reduce the present problems of students’ dormitories.