Neighborhood Effects

Desorden social, integración social y bienestar subjetivo en inmigrantes latinoamericanos en España [Social disorder, social integration, and subjective well-being among Latin-American immigrants in Spain]

by Enrique Gracia

Anales de Psicología, 28, 505-514, 2012

Black Women, Neighborhood HIV/AIDS Risk, and Institutional Buffers

by Amanda Armour

This article posits that the response to the AIDS epidemic among Blacks in the United States must acknowledge... more This article posits that the response to the AIDS epidemic among Blacks in the United States must acknowledge structural and institutional realities that render poor Black urban neighborhoods particularly vulnerable to high HIV infection rates. The controversial film Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, inspires our analysis, revealing the spatial context of HIV risk and suggesting new potential avenues through which to address the epidemic at the neighborhood level. In the film, we find opportunities for institutions to serve as intermediaries among neighborhoods, families, and individuals, not only to reduce the transmission of HIV, but also to improve health management for HIV-positive inner-city residents. The film points to three potential location-based sites of intervention: (1) mental health services that treat childhood sexual trauma; (2) HIV-related health messaging and services within urban street-level bureaucracies; and (3) neighborhood access to food and dietary resources that mitigate HIV disease progression.

Right-wing Radical Populist Party Support in and around the City; An Urban Electoral Geography of PVV voting during the 2010 Dutch Parliamentary Elections

by Wouter van Gent

Please note this is a working paper - please do not quote without consulting me. Co-authored with Elmar Jansen and Joost Smits

This paper looks at the urban electoral geography of Right-wing Radical Populist Party (RRPP) support by examining the... more This paper looks at the urban electoral geography of Right-wing Radical Populist Party (RRPP) support by examining the Dutch parliamentary elections of 2010. We propose three contextual mechanisms related to everyday life in cities, towns and suburbs which may produce ‘additional’ RRPP support locally. First, support may be additional in areas which are experiencing locally-based phenomena which may produce discontent or isolation. Second, RRPP support may be the results from a proximity to urban issues yet not necessarily in the voters own residential environment. Third, RRPP voters may have ‘fled’ from urban areas to suburban areas. So, while compensating for social compositions, we are interested in how neighborhood characteristics related to local change (housing price development, an influx of immigrant or low income residents) and residential type (rural, suburban and urban) affect RRPP support in the Netherlands. Individual survey analyses are used to separate compositional effects from contextual effects in a multi-level analysis of polling station data. We find that, while neighborhood decline is often believed to be relevant, there is no indication that an influx of low income households or non-western immigrant groups has an effect on RRPP support. Only local housing market decline seems to affect RRPP support. Also, we find that density of the built environment matters at two levels: support is higher in suburban and rural neighborhoods than in highly urban neighborhoods. Moreover, the effect is stronger when these neighborhoods are located in more urbanized municipalities. In addition, support is higher in postwar New Towns. These findings suggest that proximity to social phenomena which are denounced by RRPPS (e.g. elites, immigrants, diversity, non-traditional behavior), matters, and while living amongst them does not. The paper ends with several suggestions for further research.

Subjective Well-Being and Social Capital in Belgian Communities. The Impact of Community Characteristics on Subjective Well-Being Indicators in Belgium

by Bram Vanhoutte

Hooghe, M., Vanhoutte, B. (2011). Subjective Well-Being and Social Capital in Belgian Communities. The Impact of Community Characteristics on Subjective Well-Being Indicators in Belgium. Social Indicators Research 100(1), 17-36.

Do diverse geographical contexts lead to diverse friendship networks? A multilevel analysis of Belgian survey data

by Bram Vanhoutte

Vanhoutte, B. & Hooghe, M. (2012). Do Diverse Geographical Contexts Lead to Diverse Friendship Networks? A Multilevel Analysis of Belgian Survey Data. Journal of Intercultural Relations, forthcoming.

Perception of insecurity in poor neighbourhoods: Racial proxy

by Jean-Louis Pan Ké Shon

Vergemeinschaftung durch Anwesenheit. Die sozialräumlichen Grenzen der Nachbarschaft in Andernach und Coesfeld, in: Roll, Christine/ Pohle, Frank/ Myrczek, Matthias (Hg.): Grenzen und Grenzüberschreitungen in der Frühen Neuzeit. Bilanz und Perspektiven der Frühneuzeitforschung (Frühneuzeit-Impluse 1), Köln u.a. 2010, S. 385-398.

by Eric Piltz

Racial differences in labor force participation and long-term joblessness among less-educated men

by Michael Lichter

Understanding the Relationship between Activity and Neighbourhoods (URBAN) Study: research design and methodology

by Suzanne Mavoa

Authors: Hannah M Badland , Grant M Schofield , Karen Witten , Philip J Schluter , Suzanne Mavoa , Robin A Kearns , Erica A Hinckson , Melody Oliver , Hector Kaiwai , Victoria G Jensen , Christina Ergler , Leslie McGrath  and Julia McPhee

Background
Built environment attributes are recognized as being important contributors to physical activity (PA)... more Background
Built environment attributes are recognized as being important contributors to physical activity (PA) engagement and body size in adults and children. However, much of the existing research in this emergent public health field is hindered by methodological limitations, including: population and site homogeneity, reliance on self-report measures, aggregated measures of PA, and inadequate statistical modeling. As an integral component of multi-country collaborative research, the Understanding the Relationship between Activity and Neighbourhoods (URBAN) Study seeks to overcome these limitations by determining the strengths of association between detailed measures of the neighborhood built environment with PA levels across multiple domains and body size measures in adults and children. This article outlines the research protocol developed for the URBAN Study.

Methods and design
The URBAN Study is a multi-centered, stratified, cross-sectional research design, collecting data across four New Zealand cities. Within each city, 12 neighborhoods were identified and selected for investigation based on higher or lower walkability and Māori demographic attributes. Neighborhoods were selected to ensure equal representation of these characteristics. Within each selected neighborhood, 42 households are being randomly selected and an adult and child (where possible) recruited into the study. Data collection includes: objective and self-reported PA engagement, neighborhood perceptions, demographics, and body size measures. The study was designed to recruit approximately 2,000 adults and 250 children into the project. Other aspects of the study include photovoice, which is a qualitative assessment of built environment features associated with PA engagement, an audit of the neighborhood streetscape environment, and an individualized neighborhood walkability profile centered on each participant's residential address. Multilevel modeling will be used to examine the individual-level and neighborhood-level relationships with PA engagement and body size.

Discussion
The URBAN Study is applying a novel scientifically robust research design to provide urgently needed epidemiological information regarding the associations between the built environment and health outcomes. The findings will contribute to a larger, international initiative in which similar neighborhood selection and PA measurement procedures are utilized across eight countries. Accordingly, this study directly addresses the international priority issues of increasing PA engagement and decreasing obesity levels.

“Broken windows” and Self-Esteem: Subjective understandings of neighborhood poverty and disorder

by Tim Haney

Testing the association between the incidence of schizophrenia and social capital in an urban area

by James Kirkbride

The Impact of the Environment on Psychiatric Disorder

by James Kirkbride

Neighbourhood variation in the incidence of psychotic disorders in Southeast London

by James Kirkbride

Psychosis and place

by James Kirkbride

Neighbourhood-level effects on psychoses: re-examining the role of context

by James Kirkbride

Associations among park use, age, social participation, and neighborhood age composition in Montreal

by Spencer Moore

Co-authored with Lise Gauvin, Mark Daniel, Yan Kestens, Ulf Bockenholt, Laurette Dube, Lucie Ricard
Published in 'Leisure Sciences' 2010, 32: 318-336

Byrne, D. and Uprichard, E., (2007) 'Crossing levels: The potential for numerical taxonomy and fuzzy set approaches to studying multi-level longitudinal change', Methodological Innovations Online, 2, 1.

by Emma Uprichard

This article demonstrates how we might explore trajectories of complex systems through time when we are dealing with... more This article demonstrates how we might explore trajectories of complex systems through time when we are dealing with multiple levels of systems with intersecting causal propensities. Using ‘social exclusion’ as an illustrative example, the objective is to develop a methodological approach, using available secondary data sources, that transcends the linear and uni-directional faults of conventional multi-level modelling. This alternative approach consists of a sequential combination of cluster analysis, tallying, documentary analysis and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The authors argue that this alternative methodology allows for both a descriptive and causal explanation of change and continuity within and between multiple levels of observation, whilst also stressing the importance of context and the possibility of all configurations of change and continuity within and between the different levels to be considered.

Ethnic school context and the national and sub-national identifications of pupils

by Orhan Agirdag

published in Ethnic and Racial Studies

In various European countries, policy-makers strive for educational desegregation to enhance pupils' national... more In various European countries, policy-makers strive for educational desegregation to enhance pupils' national identifications. Since little empirical evidence supports such a policy and social identity theorists emphasize the importance of context, this article examines the impact of ethnic school composition - measured by the proportion of non-natives and ethnic heterogeneity - on the national (Belgian) and sub-national (Flemish) identifications of pupils. Multi-level data analyses from the surveying of 2,845 pupils (aged 10-12) in sixty-eight Flemish primary schools reveal differential effects for natives and non-natives. While the proportion of non-natives at school is negatively associated with non-native pupils' identifications, it is positively related to native pupils' identifications. In general, the ethnic heterogeneity of the school is negatively associated with pupils' national and sub-national identifications. Our findings indicate that the relation between ethnic school composition and pupils' identifications is mediated by the latter's inter-ethnic friendships. The consequences of these findings for educational policy are discussed.

Perceived neighborhood social disorder and residents’ attitudes toward reporting child physical abuse

by Enrique Gracia

Child Abuse & Neglect, 30 (4), 357-365, 2006

Perceived Neighborhood Social Disorder and Attitudes Toward Reporting Domestic Violence Against Women

by Enrique Gracia

Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 22, (6), 737-752, 2007