Developmental Ecological Measurement of Neighborhood Effects on Youth Violence

描述(由申请人提供)： 这项拟议的研究的目的是开发、试点和验证一套具有理论和经验意义的邻里社会过程测量方法，这些测量方法对于理解青少年暴力的风险和保护可能是重要的。将根据发展生态学模型(Bronfenbrenner，1987；Tolan，Guera和Kendall，1995)和关于社区和邻里对青年发展和暴力的影响的理论和经验文献(Leventhal&Brooks-Gunn，2000；Sampson等人，1997)，制定、改进和测试措施，以捕捉社区的特征，这些社区可能对青少年暴力风险产生直接影响，但也通过或与其他重要的社交系统，如家庭、同龄人和学校相互作用产生间接影响。我们将利用这些措施从经验上检验这些因素在多大程度上与青年的风险以及暴力、犯罪和受害行为的保护有关。建议的研究有五个具体目标：1)制定和完善测量理论和先前研究表明与青少年暴力风险和保护有关的重要社会过程(规范、社会支持和联系、社会控制和日常活动)的措施和方法；2)通过评估这些特征与青少年暴力水平和学校表现的关系，验证这些社区层面的措施；3)测试社区调查样本测量的每个结构对暴力受害和实施个人风险的具体贡献，并评估社区作为儿童攻击和暴力家庭风险、学校功能和其他儿童社会功能指标的调节因素；4)测试每个结构对两个不同发展阶段--青春期和入学--风险的解释作用的差异；以及5)测试社区结构特征(例如贫困、流动性、经济可行性)与社区社会进程之间的关系，以及这种关系的差异如何解释青少年遭受暴力和家庭功能的风险，以及其他理论上的社区风险调节因素对个人的影响。为了测试这些目标，我们计划在芝加哥选择30个城市社区。社区将被选择为非洲裔美国人或拉丁裔居民占多数。在这些社区中，我们建议从两个不同的样本中收集数据：1)青少年和成年人作为社区信息者，测量与青少年暴力风险有理论和经验联系的“社区水平”结构，以及2)儿童、青少年及其照顾者的单独样本，以测试社区因素与青少年暴力行为和受害风险的关联程度。我们在第二个样本中包括两个年龄组，有年幼孩子的家庭(5-6岁，因为他们正在上学)和有青少年的家庭(14-18岁)，以评估这些过程的发展影响。更好地了解这些机制对于改进现有预防方案和开发新的干预措施至关重要。 公共卫生相关性： 这项研究将提供有关测量邻里社会过程的重要知识，这些社会过程被认为对理解青少年暴力的风险和保护非常重要。尽管关注邻里关系的研究数量有了极大的增长，但对它们的重要性或邻里关系与风险和保护相关的过程的了解仍然相对有限。通过开发这些邻里社会过程的心理测量学合理和有效的测量方法，并通过测试这些结构与青少年暴力、犯罪和药物使用等结果之间的关系，拟议的研究将提高我们对受邻里特征影响的发展过程的理解，并有助于制定更有效的预防青少年暴力的干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this proposed study is to develop, pilot and validate a set of theoretically and empirically implicated measures of neighborhood social processes that may be important in understanding risk and protection for youth violence. Building from a developmental-ecological model (Bronfenbrenner,1987; Tolan, Guerra and Kendall, 1995) and the theoretical and empirical literature on community and neighborhood influences on youth development and violence (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Sampson et al., 1997), measures will be developed, refined and tested that capture characteristics of neighborhoods that are likely to have direct effects on risk for youth violence, but also indirect effects through or in interaction with other important socializing systems such as family, peer and schools. We will use these measures to empirically test the extent to which these factors are associated with youth risk and protection for violence perpetration and victimization. The proposed study has five specific aims: 1) to develop and refine measures and methods of measurement of important social processes (norms, social support and connection, social control, and routine activities) that theory and prior research indicate are related to risk and protection of youth violence; 2) to validate these neighborhood level measures through evaluation of the relation of these characteristics to neighborhood level of youth violence and school performance; 3) to test the specific contribution of each construct as measured by the neighborhood informant sample to individual risk for violence victimization and perpetration and to evaluate neighborhood as moderator of family risk on child aggression and violence, school functioning, and other indicators of child social functioning; 4) to test the variation in explanatory role of each construct to risk at two distinct developmental stages - adolescence and school entry; and 5) to test the relation between community structural characteristics (e.g., poverty, mobility, economic viability) and neighborhood social processes and how variation in that relation explains youth risk for violence and family functioning and other theorized moderators of neighborhood risk for individuals. To test these aims, we plan to select 30 urban neighborhoods within Chicago. Neighborhoods will be selected to have a majority of either African American or Latino residents. Within these neighborhoods, we propose to collect data from two separate samples: 1) adolescents and adults as neighborhood informants to measure "neighborhood level" constructs with theoretical and empirical links to risk for youth violence, and 2) a separate sample of children, adolescents and their caregivers to test the extent to which neighborhood factors are associated with youth risk for violence perpetration and victimization. We include two age groups within this second sample, families with young children (ages 5-6 as they are entering school) and families with adolescents (14-18) to evaluate the developmental impact of these processes. A better understanding of these mechanisms is critical for improving existing prevention programs and for developing new interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This study will provide important knowledge related to the measurement of neighborhood social processes thought to be important in understanding risk and protection for youth violence. Despite the tremendous growth in number of studies focused on neighborhood, there remains relatively limited understanding of how they matter or the processes through which neighborhoods relate to risk and protection. By developing psychometrically sound and valid measures of these neighborhood social processes, and by testing the relations between these constructs and outcomes such as youth violence, delinquency, and substance use, the proposed research will improve our understanding of the developmental processes influenced by neighborhood characteristics and contribute to the development of more effective interventions for the prevention of youth violence.