Neighborhood Context and Adolescent Psychological and Behavioral Health

描述(申请人提供)：本研究有四个目标：(1)促进对社区结构特征与城市青少年心理和行为健康(内化和外化问题)之间的关系的理解，关键是调查可能影响青少年幸福感的社区层面的关键社会过程指标；(2)调查社区社会过程和青少年心理和行为健康之间的潜在间接途径，通过最近的发展背景(即父母和同伴关系)和创伤经历(即暴露于社区暴力)；(3)确定邻里关系是否影响青少年的心理和行为健康；以及(4)考察邻里关系和关键人口统计特征(性别和种族/民族)对青少年健康的相互依存作用。该项目将主要关注社区一级进程的四个具体指标的影响：(1)集体效能，指居民之间的依恋和相互信任(即社会凝聚力)以及由此产生的保护居民集体福祉免受威胁的意愿(即非正式社会控制，Sampson，2003；Sampson，RaudenBush，&Earls，1997；Sampson&Wilson，1995)；(2)混乱，既指公共越轨行为(例如，常见的街头犯罪，如毒品交易和卖淫、公开争吵、公共醉酒)，也指越轨和腐烂的实物证据(例如，街道上的针头/注射器，街道上的垃圾；Skogan，1990；Sampson&RaudenBush，1999)；(3)社会生态，其特征是传统户外步行交通的普遍存在以及由此导致的对公共空间的社会控制(Duany，Plater-Zyberk，&speck 2000)；和(4)机构资源，指的是邻里组织和卫生保健设施等资源(Leventhal&Brooks-Gunn，2000)。为了解决研究目标，我们将使用芝加哥社区人类发展项目(PHDCN)的数据-这是一个创新的多项研究项目，专门旨在促进对背景对青年发展的影响的理解。分析将涉及三个PHDCN数据来源：(1)纵向队列研究数据，来自四个年龄段的年轻人(1995年为9、12、15和18岁)，从80个芝加哥社区(N=2,978)中挑选出来；(2)独立的芝加哥居民社区调查(N=8782；1995)；以及(3)对抽样的80个社区内15,000多个街区面孔的系统社会观察研究。我们的分析方法将结合多水平和空间统计模型来探索关键假设。这项研究的发现有可能阐明社区层面的不利因素通过哪些关键途径影响青少年的心理和行为健康。公共卫生相关性：拟议的研究将有助于更好地理解邻里因素如何影响青少年的心理和行为健康。这项研究的结果可能有助于指导旨在解决城市青少年健康问题的干预措施，包括应作为干预目标的社区类型，以及最有可能影响青少年结果的社区层面的结构和社会过程特征。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study has four aims: (1) to advance understanding of the relationship between neighborhood structural characteristics and psychological and behavioral health (internalizing and externalizing problems) among urban adolescents and, critically, to investigate key neighborhood-level social process indicators that may influence adolescent well-being; (2) to investigate potential indirect pathways between neighborhood social processes and adolescents' psychological and behavioral health via proximate developmental contexts (i.e., parent and peer relationships) and traumatic experiences (i.e., exposure to community violence); (3) to determine whether neighborhood processes condition the influence of proximate developmental contexts and experiences on adolescents' psychological and behavioral health; and (4) to examine the interdependent contributions of neighborhood context and key demographic characteristics (gender and race/ethnicity) to adolescent health. The project will focus largely on the influence of four specific indicators of neighborhood level processes: (1) collective efficacy, which refers to attachment and mutual trust among residents (i.e., social cohesion) and to the resultant willingness to protect against threats to residents' collective well-being (i.e., informal social controls Sampson, 2003; Sampson, Raudenbush, & Earls, 1997; Sampson & Wilson, 1995); (2) disorder, which refers both to public acts of deviance (e.g., common street crimes such as drug dealing and prostitution, public arguments, public intoxication) and to physical evidence of deviance and decay (e.g., needles/syringes on the streets, garbage on the streets; Skogan, 1990; Sampson & Raudenbush, 1999); (3) social ecologies, which are characterized by the prevalence of conventional outdoor foot traffic and the resulting social control of public spaces (Duany, Plater-Zyberk, & Speck 2000); and (4) institutional resources, which refer to resources such as neighborhood organizations and health care facilities (Leventhal & Brooks- Gunn, 2000). To address study aims, we will use data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) - an innovative multi-study project specifically designed to promote understanding of contextual influences on youth development. Analyses will involve three PHDCN data sources: (1) the Longitudinal Cohort Study data from youth in four age cohorts (9, 12, 15, and 18 year olds in 1995) selected from 80 Chicago neighborhoods (N = 2,978); (2) an independent Community Survey of Chicago residents (N=8782; 1995); and (3) a Systematic Social Observation study of over 15,000 block faces within the sampled 80 neighborhoods. Our analytic approach will combine multilevel and spatial statistical models to explore key hypotheses. Findings from the study have the potential to illuminate critical pathways through which neighborhood level disadvantage influences adolescent psychological and behavioral health. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research will contribute to a better understanding of how neighborhood factors affect adolescent psychological and behavioral health. Findings from the research may help guide interventions that aim to address urban adolescent health, both with respect to the types of neighborhoods that should be targeted for intervention and the neighborhood level structural and social process characteristics that are most likely to influence adolescent outcomes.