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Objectives: To examine social and physical environmental fall-risk factors in a nationally representative sample of community-living older adults overall and by racial group. Methods: We used data from the 2015 and 2016 rounds of the National Health and Aging Trends Study ( n = 5581) linked to census tract measures from the American Community Survey. Recurrent falls are defined as 2+ self-reported falls over 12 months. Results: Older adults with recurrent falls were more likely to have lower education, lower income, financial hardship, live in homes with disorder and disrepair and in neighborhoods without sidewalks, with high social deprivation, and in nonmetropolitan counties. Home disrepair, lack of sidewalks, and residence in a nonmetropolitan county were important fall-risk factors among White older adults only. Financial hardship was an important risk factor among Black older adults. Discussion: Environmental factors are associated with recurrent falls among older Americans and should be incorporated into fall-risk profiles and prevention efforts.

Leveraging point-level spatial data from the Phoenix area, we consider the role of nearby organizations as contextual factors that amplify or reduce reoffending risk among juvenile offenders after court completion. Using survival models, we examine whether residential proximity to seven types of organizations impacts risk of recidivism, net of neighborhood disadvantage and offender characteristics. Aggregate neighborhood disadvantage was not associated with reoffending risk and organizational findings were mixed. Low-level offenders with more total organizations nearby had a higher risk of new property offenses, while the risk of drug and violent reoffending nearly doubled for diversion youth residing near police facilities or detention centers. Individual demographics and prior offense histories remained the strongest, most consistent predictors of juvenile recidivism.

Studies have begun to recognize the multilevel and complex nature of intimate partner violence. Yet, only a small number of studies have looked at the interactive relationship between proximal and ...

We examined both main effects and cross-level effects of prior criminal justice contact on delinquency and violence. Using multilevel longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development on Chic...

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore factors affecting police performance, such as violent crime, fear of crime and satisfaction with police, using objectively measured policing and neighborhood characteristics.Design/methodology/approachThis study combined four data sources, including police statistics, a crime victimization survey, local government statistics and a public service satisfaction survey. Negative binomial regression and ordinary least squares models were estimated using data from 135 city governments.FindingsViolent crime was negatively associated with arrest, while fear of crime was negatively associated with patrol and positively correlated with disorder and public places. In addition, satisfaction with police had a positive association with level of patrolling and disorder policing, whereas residents receiving public assistance, ethnic heterogeneity and entertainment establishments were negatively associated with it.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper identified the different factors that impact each type of police performance, indicating its unique characteristics. Further research should be conducted to analyze data from non-urban areas to improve external validity.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that police managers need to choose the means of policing carefully depending on which performance indicators they are focusing on improving in the region.Originality/valueFew studies to date have examined the correlation between objectively measured policing and neighborhood context factors and police performance at the macro level.

A large body of work has examined the factors contributing to low self-control among adolescents, with a predominant focus on individual and family characteristics. More recently, a small body of research has examined whether neighborhood characteristics influence self-control, with many finding null effects. We extend this research by considering whether neighborhood characteristics have a moderating influence rather than a direct effect. We examine several neighborhood characteristics, including collective efficacy, delinquency rate, and moral cynicism, as well as distinctive components of parenting effectiveness, including warmth, lack of hostility, and supervision. We find that neighborhoods do influence levels of self-control among juveniles, but primarily by helping or hindering the efforts of effective parents to instill self-control in their children.

Recently, interest has piqued on the effects of neighborhood context on parolee recidivism; however, examinations often neglect to model neighborhood institutions. One type of institution that may ...

Adolescent health has a significant influence as individuals transition to adulthood and can have lifelong effects on well-being. In addition to well-established structural determinants of health such as racism and poverty, proximal determinants of adolescent health illuminate on the health effects of the daily circumstances of adolescents. Guided by the proximal determinants of adolescent health theory, we examined the association between adolescents’ self-rated health and multiple domains of proximal determinants, including family relations, peer relationships, school environment, and neighborhood environment. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we analyzed 3,444 adolescents who were 14 to 15 years old. Results of ordered logistic regression analyses revealed significant associations between proximal determinants and adolescents’ self-rated health even when taking into account all the domains simultaneously. This study highlights the importance of unraveling factors of multiple systems on adolescents’ health and suggests implications for their subsequent transition to adulthood.

Opioid abuse has redefined drug problems in communities and shifted police activities to redress substance use. Changing neighborhood context around opioid issues may affect arrests and racial disparities in their imposition. This study presents a spatial analysis of arrests involving Blacks and Whites for possession of heroin, synthetic narcotics, and opium offenses. We identify the ecological conditions associated with opioid-related arrests using geographically weighted regression (GWR) methods that illuminate local patterns by allowing coefficients to vary across space. GWR models reveal spatial and racial differences in opioid-related possession arrest rates. Calls for police service for overdoses increase White arrests in more advantaged, rural communities. Economic disadvantage and racial diversity in neighborhoods more strongly elevate possession arrest rates among Blacks relative to Whites. Overdose calls predict Black arrests in poorer urban areas. Findings underscore police responsiveness to opioid problems and Black–White differences in how opioid users interact with the criminal justice system.

Purpose Promote the use of multilevel modeling to refine theories of police discretion. Specifically, examine the simultaneous influence of situational factors, responding officers, and neighborhood context on arrests guided by a social-ecological framework. Methods Cross-classified models were used to assess the outcomes of 835,381 incidents responded to by 835 Phoenix Police officers in 388 census tracts. Results Situational, officer, and neighborhood factors all significantly influence arrests. Incident-level factors account for most of the variation, followed by officers, and neighborhoods. Incidents that resulted in arrest were more likely to involve victims, a greater number of responding officers, female officers, and college-educated officers. Arrests were more likely to occur in Hispanic and Black neighborhoods, even when controlling for situational and officer-level characteristics. Arrests were less likely to occur when officers were assigned to high crime precincts. Conclusions Multilevel models enable a comprehensive examination of police use of arrest using administrative data that are already being collected by police agencies. Through accounting for both officer and neighborhood-level influences, this strategy improves on prior theory testing in policing research. The results support elements of some theories, but conflict with others. These findings have important implications for police policies surrounding arrest and resource deployment.

Using the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) data set, the current study examined the relationship between internal change factors, including agency, readiness for change, and legal cynicism, and four reentry outcomes (recidivism, reincarceration, drug use, and treatment participation). The study also assessed the impact of external change factors, such as family support and perceived neighborhood quality on reentry outcomes. Using a hybrid model approach, we found that within-individual changes in agency and family emotional support were significantly related to decreased self-reported recidivism and reincarceration over time. Within-individual changes in family emotional support were also significantly related to reductions in self-reported drug use and within-individual changes in readiness for change were positively associated with treatment participation across the postrelease waves of the SVORI data. Between-individual results further demonstrate the salience of change factors on reentry outcomes. Study findings inform desistance models and identify some promising targets for reentry programming.

When extralegal factors correlate with differences in bond amount and pretrial detention, justice may be compromised. Prior research has identified disparity related to defendant characteristics, such as income and race. This article offers insight into a less explored source of disparity, neighborhood context, and a particularly disadvantaged population, defendants, or pretrial detainees, unable to afford their bail in court and booked into a county jail. Considering the desire for community safety, the difficulty of predicting dangerousness and court attendance, and the impact of ecological factors on other court outcomes, it is hypothesized that neighborhood context heightens disparity in the pretrial process. Findings support this argument. Offense elements best predict bond amount; however, there exists disparity based on neighborhood characteristics. When assessing the same factors in relation to detention length, bond amount is not significant, but rather individual- and neighborhood-level characteristics. Implications are discussed in light of current bail reform efforts.

As opioid addiction has risen in recent years, racial disparities in drug arrests may be changing in their size and sources. Neighborhood conditions, like economic disadvantage and racial composition, are powerful determinants of racial differences in arrests. Overdoses and police responses to these incidents may, however, alter the neighborhood context of drug arrests, especially those tied to heroin, synthetic narcotics, and related opium derivatives offenses. This study revisits the environmental correlates of arrest disparities by conducting a neighborhood-level analysis of Black–White differences in drug possession and selling arrests by substance type across the State of Delaware. Spatial model estimates suggest economic disadvantage and racial diversity in neighborhoods substantially increase Black arrest rates. Conversely, White arrest rates grow with more calls for service for overdose incidents, racial homogeneity, and to a lesser extent, economic disadvantage within a community. Disparities in arrest also vary by substance type, as heroin arrests for Whites are most correlated with higher overdose service calls relative to White arrests for marijuana, cocaine, and other substances or Black arrests for any substance. Results underscore the need to reexamine neighborhood conditions and arrest disparities due to emerging shifts in drug use and drug law enforcement.

The primary theoretical perspectives through which homicide clearance is analyzed do not give explicit attention to the neighborhood context in which people are victimized. Indeed, few clearance studies incorporate neighborhood effects. This study investigates whether neighborhood context influences the odds of homicide clearance in Rochester, NY, net of theoretically relevant victim and incident characteristics. The study also incorporates a direct measure of investigator caseload to assess the influence of organizational characteristics on clearance rates. Findings indicate that homicides, particularly of Black victims, were significantly more likely to be cleared in disadvantaged neighborhoods even as witnesses were less likely to cooperate with police in those neighborhoods. However, the odds of clearance decrease as the number of open cases each investigator is carrying increases. Case incident characteristics and the quality of evidence collected remain salient solvability factors regardless of location. Equally important is maintaining adequate staffing and keeping investigator caseloads at manageable levels. Heavy caseloads impose a significant constraint on the time that can be devoted to otherwise solvable cases and as such are analogous to the constraints imposed on prosecutors and courts by their typically heavy caseloads.

Undocumented immigrants concentrate in ethnic enclaves, but little is known about the implications of living in such neighborhoods for children of undocumented immigrants. Using data on Mexican-origin children from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey and the decennial census, this paper examines the influence of co-ethnic concentrated neighborhoods on children's behavioral functioning, and the extent to which parental nativity and documentation status moderate the neighborhood effects. Multilevel linear regression models show that the proportion of co-ethnics in the neighborhood apparently has no influence on Mexican-origin children. However, cross-level interactions reveal that the neighborhood context has differential effects by parental documentation status. The higher the percentage of co-ethnics in the neighborhood, the lower (better) the externalizing scores for children of undocumented immigrants, a pattern not observed for children of US-born or documented parents. The mechanism through which co-ethnic enclaves benefit children of undocumented Mexican immigrants deserves future research.

BackgroundMental health is a serious public health concern that is uniquely devastating for African American families.ObjectiveThis study systematically critiques the body of work documenting the mediating role of social support and neighborhood context on the psychological well-being of African American families.MethodsThis review used the PRISMA multistate process.FindingsSeveral important findings are drawn from this study: a) social support and neighborhood context shape psychological well-being, b) existing studies are limited in capacity to capture context despite having contextualized frameworks, c) African centered theory is missing.ConclusionsSocial support and neighborhood context matter. Future researchers must employ methods to capture this context and the link to mental health in African American communities where disproportionate risks exist.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between fear of victimization, actual victimization, and community-level characteristics on citizen satisfaction with police. This study attempts to clarify important factors in how citizens view the police, while accounting for contextual, neighborhood-level variables.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilized a representative victimization survey conducted in Saginaw, MI in 2015. Utilizing a sample of 824 individuals, an ordinary least-squares model was fit in order to determine the effects of reported victimization, fear of victimization, and neighborhood characteristics on satisfaction with police. The authors utilized interaction terms to model varying effects between the East and West sides of the city.FindingsThe study found that fear of victimization was related to lower satisfaction with police, while actual victimization had an inconsistent effect when community satisfaction and collective efficacy were accounted for. The authors found the effect was present only in the more affluent western portion of the city. Furthermore, the authors found that non-white residents reported much lower satisfaction with police than white residents.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors were unable to disaggregate respondents to smaller geographical units than an East\West measure, which limits the authors’ ability to discuss small-scale contexts at the block, or block-group level.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that concerted efforts to reduce fear of crime may increase satisfaction with police, but this effect may be based on neighborhood context. Improving collective efficacy and community satisfaction may provide additional ways to improve citizen satisfaction with police.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the literature examining the relationship between victimization, fear of crime, and satisfaction with police.

Although the overall trend in nursing home use has declined, this has not been the case for racial and ethnic minorities. This article elucidates the role of stressors and neighborhood context in n...

Hate crimes have received substantial scholarly attention, largely focusing on victims from marginal groups. Large numbers of White Americans also report being the victim of racial hate crime, though very little research has sought to examine the etiology or meaning of anti-White hate crimes. The present work explores the neighborhood context of hate crimes against non-Hispanic Whites in a majority-White city—comparing police reports with self-reported victimizations. Police reports of anti-White hate crimes are most common in areas that have high rates of nonhate crimes and residential instability. Perceptions of bias incidents, by contrast, appear largely driven by the racial composition. Hate crimes against members of dominant groups appear fundamentally distinct from hate crimes against members of subordinate groups and require separate theoretical models of their substantive meaning and etiology. In general, White residents appear to interpret the motivations for victimizations through a racial lens—attributing anti-White motivations most often when they live near larger numbers of Black neighbors—and reporting them most frequently in disorganized and higher crime places. Implications for theory and research on hate crimes, racial threat, anti-White racism, and the effect of the racial composition on perceptions of crime are discussed.

This study investigates interpersonal communication ties and a neighborhood context as moderators of the influences of local crime news on fear of crime and mistrust. Data from a web survey of resi...

This study examined the effects of incongruence (mismatch) between neighborhood and school racial/ethnic composition on middle school students’ experiences with teacher-and-peer-initiated discrimination. The subsample of 1,289 students (44% Latino, 26% White, 14% Black, and 16% Asian) comes from a larger longitudinal study of 26 ethnically diverse middle schools and over 300 neighborhoods that vary in ethnic diversity. This study relies on students’ self-reports of perceived discrimination and school demographic data from the California Department of Education. Student home addresses were geocoded using Geographic Information Systems, ArcGIS 10.1, and then matched to demographic data obtained from American FactFinder. Neighborhood-school incongruence scores were calculated by subtracting the proportion of same-ethnicity peers in the school from the proportion of same-ethnicity residents in the neighborhood. Overall, our results suggest that neighborhood-school incongruence affects students’ perceptions of teacher-and-peer-initiated racial/ethnic discrimination differently depending on students’ racial/ethnic group and gender. Results from multilevel models show that there was a three-way interaction, such that race/ethnicity and gender moderated the association between neighborhood-school incongruence and teacher-and-peer-initiated discrimination. These findings emphasize the importance of examining both the neighborhood and school contexts in understanding students’ experiences with racial/ethnic discrimination.

Drawing on Coleman's concept of social capital, researchers have investigated how the quality of neighborhood social networks influences child development and well-being. The role of non-kin older neighbors in advancing child well-being through the enhancement of social capital, however, has been under-studied. Our objective was to delineate specific pathways through which non-kin older neighbors contribute to neighborhood quality for children and families and potentially advance child well-being. We examined open-ended interview data from 400 parents who cared for at least one child under 18 years of age and resided in 20 neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio. A subsample of 113 parents connected older neighbors to neighborhood quality for families and children in their narratives. Our analysis identified three primary pathways through which parents positively linked older neighbors to neighborhood quality: older neighbors support parents and children, promote neighborhood safety, and contribute to neighborhood residential stability. These contributions are evidence of intergenerational closure, reciprocated exchange, and informal social control working together to create social capital in neighborhoods for children. It is by enhancing social capital that older neighbors potentially improve child well-being. We discuss the implications of our findings for neighborhood research and practice.

Many studies have documented the role of self-regulation in predicting academic outcomes. However, fewer have comprehensively measured self-regulation or considered it simultaneously with contextual variables to test formally the often-advanced "risk-buffering" hypothesis, wherein self-regulatory skill protects against contextual risk factors. In a large, regionally representative sample of U.S. adolescents, we linked self-reported demographics, self-regulation, and academic outcomes to Census data assessing neighborhood context and administrative data measuring economic disadvantage and achievement levels on state end-of-grade tests. We find inconsistent evidence for a risk-buffering role of self-regulation in the prediction of academic outcomes. Rather, we demonstrate that self-regulation is independently associated with academic outcomes, even when controlling for demographics and context.

Although non-experimental studies find robust neighborhood effects on adults, such findings have been challenged by results from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) residential mobility experiment. Using a within-study comparison design, this paper compares experimental and non-experimental estimates from MTO and a parallel analysis of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Striking similarities were found between non-experimental estimates based on MTO and PSID. No clear evidence was found that different estimates are related to duration of adult exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods, non-linear effects of neighborhood conditions, magnitude of the change in neighborhood context, frequency of moves, treatment effect heterogeneity, or measurement, although uncertainty bands around our estimates were sometimes large. One other possibility is that MTO-induced moves might have been unusually disruptive, but results are inconsistent for that hypothesis. Taken together, the findings suggest that selection bias might account for evidence of neighborhood effects on adult economic outcomes in non-experimental studies.

Attention to the relationship between neighborhood context and child maltreatment is growing. However, no study exists that considers families’ residential moves and neighborhood changes longitudinally. This is particularly relevant to disadvantaged families who move frequently. Our sample includes children who experienced a child maltreatment report (CMR) or an AFDC case in early childhood. We followed up these children from 1995 to 2009 through various administrative databases. We used multilevel logistic growth curve models to estimate the CMR likelihood at each age from 1 to 16. Estimates were limited to ages on AFDC/TANF to trace families’ residential addresses based on AFDC/TANF payee records. Our findings highlight the importance of tracing residential neighborhoods in a longitudinal study. While doing so, we identify some possible neighborhood contextual influences. These, however, are small in contribution to overall risk and are less observable among children that are more vulnerable.

Neighborhood social capital is argued to influence individual health. However, many studies do not make the distinction between individual level and group level social capital. Furthermore, many studies on this topic are cross-sectional studies based in Western countries. In this study I will examine health and neighborhood social capital by measuring social capital on both the individual and the aggregated neighborhood level. Data from two waves of the Taiwan Youth Project give a longitudinal perspective into the development of health of adolescents from northern Taiwan. The data consist of 2207 adolescents, with measures at ages 14 and 15. The adolescents are clustered within 39 neighborhoods. The results show that adolescents' individual level neighborhood social capital is related to their baseline health status, but not to changes in health status. Only neighborhood level social capital is related to changes in health status. More social capital in the neighborhood is related to positive changes in health status. To test whether the effect of neighborhood social capital changes, depending on how important the neighborhood context is in someone's life, I studied differential effects for adolescents with more or less alternative contacts outside of the neighborhood and the years adolescents resided in the neighborhood. The original results were not affected by these factors, suggesting that the relation between neighborhood social capital and health is pervasive, despite individuals' integration in the neighborhood.

Objectives:Within the field of gambling research, an emerging body of literature has begun to examine the associations between neighborhood context and gambling outcomes (i.e., gambling participation and problems). Previous research has been heavily focused on objective measures of neighborh

BACKGROUND: Gang membership is a significant contributor to delinquency and violent victimization among adolescents. Yet, there is considerable variability in the extent to which gang members engage in delinquency and substance use, and previous research suggests factors beyond the individual level are important to consider. OBJECTIVES: Using the multiple marginality framework, this study examines the factors related to the family, school, and neighborhood contexts that may contribute to delinquency and substance use among current gang members. METHODS: Between 2013 and 2015, we conducted quantitative surveys with 449 self-identified gang members between the ages of 14 and 19 years old in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Surveys included measures to assess delinquency, substance use, parental involvement, educational attainment, drug distribution, and police involvement. We ran simple and multiple regressions to assess the relationship between family, school, and neighborhood factors and delinquency and substance use. RESULTS: Regression analyses revealed several significant predictors of delinquency and substance use among adolescent gang members including parental substance use and incarceration, school safety, police contact, and neighborhood disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Family and school factors are likely important protective factors against delinquency and substance use among gang members. Interventions at the family and community level may be particularly important in reducing poor health and social outcomes for adolescent gang members.

Youth is a period where a significant amount of leisure time is met with an expanding array of options of how to spend this time. While structured and often adult-controlled programs are considered developmentally beneficial, disadvantaged and minority youth tend to reside in neighborhoods with fewer high quality resources and higher risk of exposure to detrimental influences. But we currently have limited knowledge of how youth growing up in the same disadvantaged neighborhood get involved in positive or negative activities. Drawing on two studies – one socio-spatial study of the leisure time activities of immigrant male adolescents (n = 14) and a developmental study of a similar group of immigrant young men (n = 11) who grew up in the same poor neighborhood in Dortmund, Germany, this paper examines the influence of neighborhood context and leisure time behavior on development. Our findings highlight the potential importance of informal activities for providing access to institutional supports.

Our understanding of how community-level context impacts care of persons living with HIV (PLWH), including antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence and retention in care, is limited. The objective of this study was to characterize the activity spaces of PLWH from an urban area in Southeastern U.S., where the epidemic is among the nation’s highest, and to examine how such activity spaces are associated with daily mood and health behaviors. In this small, pilot study, 11 participants were tracked with a global positioning system (GPS)-enabled application on their smartphones for 2 weeks. Activity spaces were created by connecting GPS points sequentially and adding buffers. Contextual exposure data (e.g., alcohol outlets) were connected to activity spaces. Participants also completed daily diary entry through texts 3 times per day regarding outcomes of substance use behaviors, mood, and medication adherence. This yielded a total of 18,007 GPS polyline records that we aggregated into 258 person-days that captured discrete occasions of exposure to contextual factors and subjects’ behaviors and moods. On average, the participants spent 19% of their time awake during the 2-week periods in their residential census tract. Exposure to social and built environment factors such as alcohol outlets was greater when participants were outside versus inside their residential census tract. Exposures on daily routes were also significantly associated with ART adherence, alcohol consumption, and mood. Findings suggest substantial differences between activity spaces and residential contexts. Activity spaces are relevant for PLWH and may impact HIV care and behavioral outcomes such as ART adherence and substance use.

Recidivism research has largely addressed individual-level attributes, neglecting the role of the neighborhood context. Following a sample of 4,851 parolees returning to the City of Philadelphia in 2007 and 2008, the current study examines the role of the neighborhood context and nonresidential land uses (both risk and protective factors) in reincarceration and time to reincarceration. Although our findings suggest limited support for the neighborhood context in explaining reincarceration, we found that the presence of beer bars and liquor outlets within walking distance of a parolee’s home increased their likelihood of reincarceration and reduced their time in the community.

Only a handful of macro-level studies of homicide clearance exist, and the impact of community characteristics is mixed. In addition, community members are critical to clearances, but the willingness of residents to unite for the collective goal of aiding in investigations (via collective efficacy) remains to be tested. Combining data from the Chicago Police Department, Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), and U.S. Census, we estimate the effect of collective efficacy on homicide clearances in Chicago neighborhoods, while taking into account neighborhood characteristics and case composition. Results indicate that economic disadvantage, residential stability, and victimization significantly decrease homicides clearances, while collective efficacy increases clearances.

Neighborhood context, which may be impacted by urban growth or residential mobility, is associated with childhood physical activity. This secondary analysis examined associations of objectively measured neighborhood characteristics with young children’s moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary/rest time (SRT) over a period of rapid infrastructure change. Underserved preschoolers (n = 426) from a 36-month obesity prevention intervention were included in a secondary analysis (2019–2020). Based on household addresses, participants were coded as movers or non-movers and linked to four neighborhood variables: 1) distance to recreation sites, 2) annual crimes, 3) annual stray dogs, and 4) Gini index of income inequality. Accelerometry captured MVPA and SRT at baseline and 36 months. Baseline-to-follow-up neighborhood variables within moved and non-moved groups were compared. Multivariable regression assessed associations between follow-up MVPA/SRT and neighborhood variables. 45.3% of participants (n = 193) moved. Distance to the closest recreation site decreased significantly for non-movers (0.75 to 0.72 mi, p

Although interpersonal communication is a defining feature of committed relationships, the quality of couple communication has not proven to be a straightforward cause of relationship quality. At the same time, emerging models argue that external circumstances likely combine with communication to generate changes in relationship quality. We integrate these 2 ideas by proposing that communication does exert effects on changes in relationship quality, but primarily when couples encounter challenging situations that require an adaptive response. In the present study we examine residential moves to different neighborhoods as one such adaptive challenge. We conducted a longitudinal study of 414 newlywed couples to examine whether observed communication moderates the effect of moving to higher- or lower-income neighborhoods on changes in relationship quality. Results indicate that communication exerts no main effects on relationship quality. Consistent with the proposed model, however, wives who displayed less positive, less effective, and more negative behaviors experienced greater decreases in relationship quality, but only when couples moved to substantially higher-income neighborhoods. Because communication may not affect relationship quality until couples encounter qualitatively new demands, strengthening relationships may pivot less on improving communication skills and more on ensuring that couples' circumstances do not overwhelm the skills that they already possess. (PsycINFO Database Record

Purpose Policing differs across neighborhoods, but little is known about how context conditions residents’ assessments about police legitimacy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether procedural justice and police effectiveness differently contribute to legitimacy judgments depending on the security risk inherent in the context. Design/methodology/approach The research applies a series of multi-level regression models using nearly 3,000 surveys of Trinidad and Tobago residents. Findings Police legitimacy and the conditions that promote legitimacy vary across neighborhoods. In “good” neighborhoods, individuals draw on police effectiveness and procedural justice to infer legitimacy, but in at-risk neighborhoods, residents’ views derive from effectiveness. Procedural justice does not play a significant role. Practical implications One implication for police is that the current emphasis on evidence-based policing strategies, especially in high crime neighborhoods, can provide a mechanism to improve the generally negative views about police legitimacy held by those residents. The findings do not imply, however, that police need not be concerned about procedural justice in at-risk neighborhoods. In fact, as police improve their crime prevention prowess, views about how procedurally just their methods are increase in importance. Originality/value Prior research addressing the antecedents of legitimacy has focused on individual demographic and attitudinal predictors. Only two prior studies have begun to investigate whether residents of different contexts may form their views based on different antecedents. This study outlines a theoretical basis for why different bases may be expected and then tests those expectations using rigorous statistical analyses.

The current study tests neighborhood (i.e., block group) effects reflective of broken windows theory (i.e., neighborhood, public space, social, housing disorder) on crime. Furthermore, these effects are tested independently on serious (i.e., Part I), and less serious (i.e., Part II) crime rates. Disorder data on a racially/ethnically stratified sample of block groups (N = 60) within Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. were collected through systematic observations. Using these data, along with census and crime data, linear regression modeling was employed to test the effect of disorder measures on each crime outcome measure. Consistent with broken windows theory, disorder was associated with crime rates, however, the effect of disorder on crime was limited to the public space disorder measure. Furthermore, the effects of disorder on Part I crime rates were mediated by Part II offenses. Partial support was found for broken windows theory, in which neighborhood context had a greater effect on less serious offenses. Neighborhoods with increasing frequencies of disorder may benefit from bolstering partnerships between law enforcement officers, community members, and other local stakeholders with the aim of deterring offending at all levels, and consequently, decreasing indices of disorder and crime.

Objective To assess the impact of Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Program (MTO) implemented in 1994 in five U.S. cities (Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City) on teen births. Methods We analyzed baseline and long-term evaluation data for youth (ages 13–20) and young adults (ages 21–30) (N = 7861) who were children or teens at baseline. We used regression analyses to estimate the impact of housing vouchers on having a teen birth. Results Overall, MTO had no significant effect on teen births. However, among young adults whose parent had a child before age 20, the proportion with a teen birth themselves was 21% lower among those offered housing vouchers to low-poverty neighborhoods with no restrictions compared to those not offered housing vouchers (p, Highlights • Moving to Opportunity (MTO) is a randomized study of housing vouchers. • MTO offers an opportunity to study the social determinants of reproductive health. • We examined childbearing among 13–30 year olds. • MTO had no effect on teen births for the youth sample (

From genetic contributions to the selection of contexts in which their children are reared, parents play a fundamental role in shaping children’s development. This chapter discusses research on parenting and child development in the neighborhood context to make theoretically and empirically based recommendations for future research. To achieve this goal, it first outlines research linking neighborhoods, parenting, and child development in historical context. The chapter describes particular challenges for defining and studying the overlapping contexts of neighborhoods and parenting, with a focus on research methodology around neighborhoods. It addresses direct links between neighborhoods and parents' well-being and parenting behaviors before turning to mediated and moderated models that link neighborhoods and parenting with children's outcomes. The challenges around consistently defining neighborhoods and obtaining rigorous neighborhood-level measurements compound the difficulties of conducting research on the importance of neighborhoods for parenting.