Linking Neighborhood Character and Resources to Adolescent Achievement Orientation

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There is general agreement that the contexts in which children and adolescents develop and learn are important. Studies of neighborhood influences suggest that neighborhoods influence individuals at a variety of levels. However, as traditionally measured, the effects of neighborhoods are smaller than family characteristics such as socioeconomic status (e.g., poverty) and total years of education completed by parents. Some researchers suggest that an understanding of the full impact of neighborhoods is still to be determined (Turner et al, 1997, p.2). The proposed research takes the perspective that to understand the factors affecting the development of competence and well-being in urban youth requires an understanding of the influence of both neighborhood and societal contexts as well as the responses or coping strategies of young people. This is critical to our understanding of why some urban youth respond to or cope with neighborhood risks and difficulties in ways which result in positive outcomes and competence; whereas, other young people, who live in identical contexts, cope with situational challenges in ways which produce less than desirable achievement and life course successes.The project uses a particular theory-driven approach, the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological systems theory (PVEST) (Spencer, 1995, 1999) to explore seven levels of adolescents' environments and relates them to their coping methods, identity formation and school achievement. The ecology or environment-associated perspective is linked to culture, is sensitive to adolescents' unique coping and identity processes, and helps to interpret different youth outcomes.Specifically the study will examine the relationship between student characteristics and seven levels of their environment. The approximate 1500 urban boys and girls (Hispanics, African Americans, Asian American and EuroAmerican), who comprise this study sample, attend 41 Philadelphia public schools and represent either a high achieving (A/B grades) or marginally (C/D grades) performing achievement group. They will be followed throughout their high school years beginning in either the 9th, 10th, or 11th grade and followed into post-secondary schooling (college) options or the world of work