Neighborhood Effects on Adolescent Development

该项目将研究邻里特征对青少年完成学业和教育程度、性活动和非婚生育以及犯罪和吸毒的影响。这个理论框架主要基于威廉·J·威尔逊（William J. Wilson）关于邻里劣势对城市内部社会错位的影响的论文。主要的解释变量将包括青少年所在社区的社会经济和人口状况指标，如贫困率、失业率、种族构成和配偶可用性。将特别注意邻里经济劣势和这些行为之间的关系的功能形式;在不同的社会经济，年龄和种族群体的邻里特征的潜在差异影响;因素，如父母的监督，教育和职业的愿望，和同龄人群体规范，这可能介导的邻里条件对青少年的结果的影响;以及黑人和白人居住社区的社会经济和人口构成的差异在多大程度上可以解释在教育程度、婚前性行为和非婚生育方面经常出现的明显种族差异。这个独特的，多层次的数据集的分析，为完善理论模型的社区如何影响生活事件和生活的机会，测试最近的索赔有关弱势群体日益集中在下层地区，并告知公共政策，解决这些问题的承诺。

This project will examine the effects of neighborhood characteristics on adolescents' school completion and educational attainment, sexual activity and non-marital childbearing, and delinquency and drug use. The theoretical framework is grounded most heavily in William J. Wilson's treatise dealing with the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on inner-city social dislocations. The primary explanatory variables will include indicators of the socioeconomic and demographic status of the adolescent's neighborhood, such as the poverty rate, the unemployment rate, racial composition, and mate availability. Special attention will be given to the functional form of the relationship between neighborhood economic disadvantage and these behaviors; the potentially differential impact of neighborhood characteristics across different socioeconomic, age, and racial groups; factors such as parental supervision, educational and occupational aspirations, and peer group norms, that might mediate the effects of neighborhood conditions on adolescent outcomes; and the degree to which differences in the socioeconomic and demographic composition of the neighborhoods inhabited by blacks and whites can explain the often pronounced racial differences in educational attainment, premarital sexual activity, and non-marital fertility. The analysis of this unique, multi-level data set holds promise for refining theoretical models of how neighborhoods affect life events and life chances, for testing recent claims regarding the increasing concentration of disadvantaged groups in underclass areas, and for informing public policies that address these issues.