This paper reviews the research of the effects of involuntary residential relocation on the personal adjustment of institutionalized individuals, i.e., the institutionalized elderly, mentally ill, and mentally retarded. Discrepant findings in studies of involuntary relocation are discussed in terms of the transferees' personal characteristics, the environmental and process factors of the change, and the varying impacts of relocation on some groups and under certain circumstances. The variability in personal reactions to relocation is explained in terms of stable individual characteristics, cognitive mediators, and environmental characteristics. This review examines relocation from an ecological perspective that accounts for both the subjective and objective features of the old and the new environments. (Author/NRB)