Staying
Out of Trouble: Neighborhood
Influences on Adolescent Problem Behavior
Lori
Kowaleski-Jones
Abstract
In this research, I consider how objective and perceived
neighborhood quality affect adolescent problem behavior. I focus
on three main questions: (1) Does living in stressful neighborhoods
cause adolescents to be more likely to take risks? (2) Do some neighborhoods
contribute to adolescent problem behaviors by exacerbating the effects
of family-level stressors and inadequate maternal resources? (3)
How does the adolescent's attitudinal orientation in turn influence
their likelihood of engaging in problem behavior? To address these
questions, I merge data from the 1990 Census and the National Longitudinal
Survey of Youth (NLSY) Merged Mother-Child files to form a sample
of 860 adolescents aged 14 to 18 in 1994.
Neighborhood attributes have strong effects on adolescent outcomes.
In particular, a clear factor that helps adolescents to stay out
of trouble is living in more residentially stable communities. Residential
stability decreases both adolescent risk-taking attitudes and aggressive
behavior. One of the more compelling findings of this research is
that the protective effect of residential stability persists regardless
of the level of disadvantage present within the community. The quality
of schools that adolescents attend also has strong protective effects.
Higher quality schools are environments in which adolescents are
less likely to get into trouble, even controlling for attributes
of the adolescent's family situation. From a policy perspective,
this is a particularly important finding as it counters the argument
that schools cannot effectively help adolescents without substantial
family support.
Lori Kowaleski-Jones,
Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
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