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Background: Few studies have examined the associations among social cohesion, physical activity, and obesity in older adults. This study explored the influences of social cohesion and leisure-time physical activity on obesity in older adults, and tested whether these relationships varied by race/ethnicity and income level. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of adults in the 2013 National Health Interview Study (NHIS) who were over 65 years of age (N = 7714) was used. Logistic regressions were performed to examine the impacts of social cohesion and physical activity on obesity, and the relative risks (RR) were reported. Results: The median age was 73 years old, and 59.8% of respondents were female; 23.8% met the recommended level of moderate physical activity. Neighborhood social cohesion was not associated with obesity for older adults. Meeting the recommended level of vigorous physical activity was related to a lower probability of obesity only for older Hispanic adults (RR = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.31 to 0.50), while older adults were less likely to be obese if they met the recommended level of moderate physical activity. Conclusions: Increasing the level of physical activity may profoundly reduce the probability of obesity for older adults. Moreover, the results implied the need for future physical activity interventions for minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, few studies have adopted a particular focus on the role of housing tenure when analysing ethnic and socioeconomic differences in out-mobility from poor neighbourhoods. This study contributes to filling this gap. The paper uses a full population data set covering every individual in the capital region of Sweden during the period 2006–2008. The findings indicate that the likelihood of leaving poor neighbourhoods increase for the foreign background population if their income is higher and they own their housing unit, while native Swedes seem to be less constrained by income. This lends support to the theoretical framework of place stratification. The results warrant efforts to broaden residential mix policy beyond the discussion on housing tenure if policy-makers want to counteract the ethnic and socioeconomic imbalances of residential mobility reproducing segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Individuals may use unhealthy coping mechanisms such as alcohol, tobacco, and unhealthy snack consumption. The purpose of this study was to assess how neighborhood disadvantage is associated with sales of alcohol, tobacco, and unhealthy snacks at stores of a discount variety store chain.Methods: Alcohol, tobacco, and unhealthy snack sales were measured monthly for 20 months, 2017-2018, in 16 discount variety stores in the United States. Mixed effects linear regressions adjusted for population size, with store-specific random effects, to examine the relationship of weekly unit sales with three outcome variables and neighborhood disadvantage, measured using the Area Deprivation Index (ADI).Results: The discount variety stores were located in neighborhoods where the median ADI percentile was 87 [interquartile range 83,89], compared to the median ADI percentile of 50 for all US communities, indicating that the stores were located in substantially disadvantaged neighborhoods. For every 1% increase in ADI, weekly unit sales of unhealthy snack food increased by 43 [95% confidence interval, CI 28-57], and weekly unit sales of tobacco products increased by 11.5 [95% CI 5-18] per store. No significant relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and the weekly unit sales of alcohol products was identified.Conclusions: The positive relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and the sale of tobacco and snack foods may help explain the pathway between neighborhood disadvantage and poor health outcomes. It would be useful for future research to examine how neighborhood disadvantage influences resident health-related behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents' sense of community (SOC) may ease the impact of neighborhood risk on children's outcomes, but not all parents feel part of a trusted community. In this study, we examined whether parents' ratings of neighborhood risk and interpersonal support were related to their SOC, and whether interpersonal support moderated the relationship between neighborhood risk and parents' SOC. Participants included 161 parents (M = 40.25 years; 92.3% female) of minor children who were enrolled in youth mentoring programs. Results indicated that greater interpersonal support and less neighborhood risk was associated with parents' SOC. Post-hoc analyses showed that living in a neighborhood with gangs and illegal drugs, but not residential instability or living in public housing, was a salient risk factor for lower SOC. Contrary to our prediction, interpersonal support did not moderate the link between neighborhood risk and parents' SOC. These findings may inform interventions designed to bolster parents' connectedness to community and ability to promote children's positive development. Highlights: Parents' sense of community (SOC) has been linked to the health and well-being of children and families. We replicated previous research suggesting parents' SOC is diminished in the face of neighborhood risk, particularly a neighborhood with gangs and illegal drugs. Parents' level of interpersonal support, however, was a significant, positive predictor of parents' SOC. Our findings help clarify the factors that promote and detract from parents' SOC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recently, investigators have begun to refine audit instruments for use in rural areas. However, no studies have developed a walkability summary score or have correlated built environment characteristics with physical activity behavior. Methods: The Rural Pedestrian Environmental Audit Instrument was developed specifically for use in rural areas. Segments surrounding participant's homes were selected to represent neighborhood streets (N = 116). Interrater reliability was conducted on a subset of streets (N = 42). Rural-specific domain and walkability scores were developed and correlated with individual-level data on perceptions of the neighborhood and self-reported physical activity behavior. Results: Interrater reliability for the instrument was substantial and all domains had high agreement. Walkability in the audited area was low with even the best segments demonstrating only moderate support for walking. There were no significant correlations between the neighborhood walkability score and self-reported neighborhood walkability, time spent walking, sedentary behavior, or BMI; however, a few correlations within the social/dynamic domain were significant. Conclusions: This study expands recent research reining audit instruments for rural areas. Findings suggest the usefulness of summarizing environmental data at the domain level and linking it to physical activity behavior to identify aspects of the neighborhood environment that are most strongly correlated with actual behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends recent research on the spatial dynamics of neighbourhood disadvantage and youth offending. Data include self-reported offences from 794 Dutch adolescents and the socio-economic status in their residential neighbourhood and the surrounding community. The findings reveal that youth engage in the highest levels of offending when they reside in disadvantaged neighbourhoods surrounded by neighbourhoods characterized by relative affluence. This spatial pattern is attributable to greater temptations to offend, reduced parental monitoring, and more frequent involvement in unstructured activities among youths who live in close proximity to neighbourhoods more affluent than their own. This study highlights the importance of criminogenic opportunities and parental monitoring for understanding the spatial dynamics of neighbourhood disadvantage on offending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The environment has a great influence on people's lifestyles and their capacity to choose healthy habits. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between perceived environment and physical activity among adults living in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Methods: This was a cross-sectional population- based study conducted with 890 people age 18 years or over. Physical activity was measured through the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ; long version) and perceived environment was evaluated using the Neighborhood Walkability Scale (NEWS) adapted. Poisson's regression was used for statistical analyses and prevalence ratios were calculated. The outcome variable was the attainment of at least 150 minutes per week of physical activities. The independent variables consisted of perceived environment variables and control variables (sex, age, schooling, time living in the home, and number of cars per household). Results: The perceived environment variables that explained physical activity were: receiving invitations from friends for activities (P = .012), low environmental pollution scores (p trend = 0.030) and high general safety scores (P-trend = 0.039). Conclusions: These results suggest that physical activity promotion in regions like this should be envisaged as a complex phenomenon and investments in public safety, prevention and combating of environmental pollution and social support networks are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have considered whether the consequences associated with parental incarceration extend beyond the children who experience the event, and whether the influence of parental incarceration varies by the context in which it occurs. This study investigates the multilevel consequences of parental incarceration by examining the relationship between individual- and neighborhood-level rates of parental, maternal, and paternal incarceration and adult neighborhood disadvantage. We consider the interrelated association between individual- and neighborhood-level parental, maternal, and paternal incarceration and the neighborhood children attain in adulthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we find that the influence of individual-level parental incarceration, and particularly paternal incarceration, is weaker in contexts where parental incarceration is commonplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comment reassesses the prominent claim from Desmond, Papachristos, and Kirk (2016) (DPK) that 911 calls plummeted—and homicides surged—because of a police brutality story in Milwaukee (the Jude story). The results in DPK depend on a substantial outlier 47 weeks after the Jude story, the final week of data. Identical analyses without the outlier final week show that the Jude story had no statistically significant effect on either total 911 calls or violent crime 911 calls. Modeling choices that do not extrapolate from data many weeks after the Jude story—including an event study and "regression discontinuity in time"—also find no evidence that calls declined, a consistent result across predominantly black neighborhoods, predominantly white neighborhoods, and citywide. Finally, plotting the raw data demonstrates stable 911 calls in the weeks around the Jude story. Overall, the existing empirical evidence does not support the theory that publishing brutality stories decreases crime reporting and increases murders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is on the exegesis of the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25–35) and its relevance to the challenges that are being posed by COVID-19. Through the historical-critical approach, the article has concluded that the parable is relevant in troubleshooting the challenges that are caused by COVID-19, such as discrimination, stigma, hate and stereotypes. The article sees COVID-19 as teaching humanity the important lesson that no one can live in isolation, however powerful or economically strong they are. Therefore, there is a need to take the opportunity of being a neighbour. Neighbourhood is understood as offering services to those in need and COVID-19 has presented a chance to the entire world to help someone with needs. A need-based world requires neighbours and this makes the parable relevant. Contribution: This article is a reflection of the challenges that are currently faced by people in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is within the scope of this theological journal that issues of identity, relationships, and theological reflection should be addressed, hence the article fits well within this scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Built environments are associated with physical activity (PA), but most studies to date have employed acontextual PA outcome measures. The purposes of this study were to examine the proportion of PA that occurred within participants' neighborhoods and associations between neighborhood walkability attributes and different intensities and purposes of PA episodes occurring specifically within neighborhoods. Methods: 384 community residents completed 7 subscales of the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS) and a detailed 7-day PA log-booklet that included the duration, intensity, and purpose of all episodes. Results: Only one-third of reported PA episodes occurred in participants' neighborhoods. Higher ratings for 5 of the 7 walkability variables were associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in at least some moderate-intensity neighborhood PA (versus none), but were not significantly associated with engaging in greater levels of neighborhood PA (150+ versus 1-149 minutes). Land use mix access, street connectivity, and aesthetics were significant predictors of transportation-related neighborhood PA, but only aesthetics was significantly associated with neighborhood recreational PA. Conclusions: Improving neighborhood walkability may be a stimulus for increased neighborhood PA, especially among largely sedentary individuals, but different attributes are associated with transportation-related and recreational activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of ethnic diversity on individuals' satisfaction with their neighbourhoods. It uses panel data and a variety of empirical methods to control for potential endogeneity of diversity and of location choices. We find that a higher white share raises overall satisfaction with the neighbourhood in our (overwhelming white) sample, but has no significant impact on generalised trust or other commonly used measures of social capital. We suggest that part of the impact of diversity on overall neighbourhood satisfaction may be through an effect on fear of crime, though we find no effect on actual crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzes how living in concentrated poverty during adolescence affects future college outcomes. Using Add Health data and propensity score methods to explore effect heterogeneity, I find that concentrated poverty has little direct impact on college matriculation. It does, however, strongly reduce the odds of graduating from college for adolescents least likely to reside in concentrated poverty. This indicates an advantage-leveling model in which individuals with prior advantages have the most to lose from neighborhood disadvantage during adolescence. I assess neighborhood socialization, school effects, and peer effects as potential explanations for the neighborhood effect. Supporting collective socialization theory, neighborhood economic opportunity and resource deprivation are key aspects of poverty-saturated neighborhoods that influence college graduation odds. Schools also play an important role in the relationship between neighborhoods and college outcomes. Main effects are likely to be causal as they are highly robust to unobserved confounding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no question that traditional cities, including most urban centers studied by archaeologists, are and were typically sub‐divided into numerous face‐to‐face communities or neighborhoods. However, the large size of even the smallest of these urban centers impedes the ability of archaeologists to generate the data needed for their full assessment. As a result, all of the papers in this volume consider the interaction between neighbors—which is certainly an important issue for understanding the structure of early urban societies—but an overall analysis of the structure of whole neighborhoods is rarely achievable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For such a ubiquitous urban form, neighborhoods have been subject of relatively sparse systematic archaeological scrutiny or theorization. This collection starts with first principles about social vectors of cooperation, and how neighborhoods emerge not only as durable manifestations of cooperation, but as human‐nonhuman assemblages for the production and dissolution of cooperation and community. Much as in the case of "community", neighborhoods derive their social efficacy and ethos of belonging both through their seemingly irreducible affordances of quotidian interaction and through more or less self‐conscious rituals or habits of affiliation. These both produce and are products of the material remains of neighborhoods that archaeologists study. With this generative view of neighborhood materiality in mind, this essay surveys the landscape of the archaeology of communities, and seeks pathways through the theoretical and methodological challenges it poses, as presented in the contributions to this volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1942 Japanese Americans from the west coast of the United States were forcibly relocated to incarceration camps scattered across the interior of the country. Constructed by the Army Corp of Engineers and designed to house around 10,000 individuals, these centers followed a rigid, gridded layout that allowed for the rapid construction of what were ostensibly cities. Residential sections were laid out in blocks, each containing barracks buildings to which internees were assigned on arrival. Five seasons of intensive pedestrian survey at the Granada Relocation Center National Historic Landmark, Colorado (also known as Amache), accompanied by extensive oral histories, has determined that these residential blocks became neighborhoods with individual character and personalities. Archaeological and archival data are used to examine the development of neighborhood identities and examine the relative utility of different data sets in identifying social interaction as a proxy for neighborhood identities. Archaeological research at Amache reveals the physical modifications and artifacts found in residential blocks. Distinct differences in densities and types of artifacts along with the development of coordinated blockwide landscaping and centrally located communal features show that internees were developing neighborhood‐based communities. These indicate the role that new social relationships, developed within the confines of camp, along with the influences of existing social ties and sets of behavioral traits, had on the formation of neighborhoods. This chapter uses social network data drawn from historic newspapers to examine the levels of interaction occurring between residents of the same residential block and between different areas of the camp. Social network data will be used to explore the role that social interaction had in the creation and maintenance of neighborhood identities. These different lines of data converge to highlight how neighborhoods defined by distinct sets of activities and residential traits were being formed within the institutional setting of Amache. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American Indian neighborhoods were very much under construction during the late‐eleventh century at Cahokia in the American Bottom region of southwestern Illinois. A social order that transcended pre‐Mississippian village life may now be defined based on large‐scale excavations at East St. Louis and Cahokia proper. Architectural patterns and craft production debris within the greater central complex indicate possible religious, if not political or ethnic, divisions that did not form organically. At least some of this architecture was built specifically for sheltering and engaging other animate beings. The central problems in this analysis are distinguishing residential neighborhoods from other kinds of occupational zones and human neighbors from other‐than‐human residents. To this end, we generate new measures of architectural diversity, density, and positioning to identify the elements of Cahokian neighborhoods and examine how they were created and reconfigured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Case studies from two distinct geographic and historical contexts are analyzed here with respect to the model of neighborhood‐as‐nexus. Sector B South, an urban neighborhood from 14th century Peru and Chicago's 20th century Bronzeville neighborhood are examined with respect to a) how they integrated neighbors and families with diverse social identities, b) the various geographical and historical processes that brought these neighbors together, and c) how each neighborhood was integrated into a wider urban and regional landscape. Sector B South and Bronzeville illustrate how wider processes alight in everyday life for urban residents. More generally, these cases provide an opportunity for exploring how a neighborhood approach can help bring clarity to the similarities and differences in the social experience of everyday life between two temporally and geographically distinct societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation of Late Moche hamlets, hillside ceremonial sites, and large monumental centers in the Jequetepeque Valley (650–850 CE) reveals that neighborhood‐like groupings were tied to rural and kin‐based communities. However, the diversity of settlement types and the non‐fixed nature of Jequetepeque "neighborhoods" reveal that North Coast political landscapes defy reduction to an Asiatic mode of urbanism or related village‐state models. Instead, the distinctive neighborhood configurations are best explained in terms of historically specific religious and political ideologies. In contrast to the permanently occupied cities of Huacas de Moche and Pampa Grande, traditional neighborhoods, understood as spatially bounded social units, poorly describe the densely populated but pulsating political landscape of the Jequetepeque region. Nevertheless, the archaeological evidence indicates that intra‐settlement sociopolitical associations, transcending familial or household allegiances, were consciously maintained and materialized in specific settlements, even when occupation was ephemeral and seasonal. The construction of such (imagined) communities, both within and between different settlements of the Jequetepeque Valley, was determined in large part by rituals of commensality and the sharing of food with tutelary huacas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hate crime creates significant problems for individual victims and the social fabric of a community more broadly. Victimisation is most likely to occur around the victim's own neighbourhood, yet few studies examine how the neighbourhood context influences hate crime. This study uses data from the Australian Community Capacity Study involving 4,400 participants in 148 neighbourhoods in Brisbane. It examines whether it is characteristics of place (such as attitudes toward diversity, place attachment and social cohesion) that reduce hate crime, or whether it is interactions with fellow residents (such as frequency of neighbourly exchanges, number of friends, and number of acquaintances in the neighbourhood) that shelter residents from hate crime. Results demonstrate that characteristics of a place provide important protective factors against hate crime in the neighbourhood, rather than the number of social‐interactions between residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To examine the association between neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) and alcohol availability before and after deregulation in 2015 of the alcohol market in Ontario, Canada. Methods. We quantified alcohol access by number of alcohol outlets and hours of retail for all 19 964 neighborhoods in Ontario. We used mixed effects regression models to examine the associations between alcohol access and a validated SES index between 2013 and 2017. Results. Following deregulation, the number of alcohol outlets in Ontario increased by 15.0%. Low neighborhood SES was positively associated with increased alcohol access: lower-SES neighborhoods had more alcohol outlets within 1000 meters and were closer to the nearest alcohol outlets. Outlets located in low-SES neighborhoods kept longer hours of operation. Conclusions. We observed a substantial increase in alcohol access in Ontario following deregulation. Access to alcohol was greatest in low-SES neighborhoods and may contribute to established inequities in alcohol harms. Public Health Implications. Placing limits on number of alcohol outlets and the hours of operation in low-SES neighborhoods offers an opportunity to reduce alcohol-related health inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As today's cities are becoming more diverse, scholars and policy makers have become increasingly interested in the impacts of living in diverse neighbourhoods on people's perceptions of diversity. While adults' and young people's perceptions have been studied separately, we know little about how different age groups living in the same neighbourhood encounter and experience diversity. In this paper we explore how adults (aged 35–65) and young people (aged 12–19) in Feijenoord, Rotterdam perceive neighbourhood diversity and how this is related to encounters with differences in public, semi‐public and private neighbourhood spaces. We argue for combining generational and spatial approaches when studying perceptions of diversity by showing that these perceptions cannot be explained by age and the time people grew up in alone, but are also shaped by the different ways in which age groups use neighbourhood spaces and encounter others in these spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To estimate the association between rates of police-related deaths and neighborhood residential segregation (by income, race/ethnicity, or both combined) in the United States. Methods. We identified police-related deaths that occurred in the United States (2015–2016) using a data set from the Guardian newspaper. We used census data to estimate expected police-related death counts for all US census tracts and to calculate the Index of Concentration at the Extremes as a segregation measure. We used multilevel negative binomial models for the analyses. Results. Overall, police-related death rates were highest in neighborhoods with the greatest concentrations of low-income residents (vs high-income residents) and residents of color (vs non-Hispanic White residents). For non-Hispanic Blacks, however, the risk was greater in the quintile of neighborhoods with the highest concentration of non-Hispanic White residents than in certain neighborhoods with relatively higher concentrations of residents of color (the third and fourth quintiles). Conclusions. Neighborhood context matters—beyond individual race/ethnicity—for understanding, preventing, and responding to the occurrence of police-related deaths. Public Health Implications. Efforts to monitor, prevent, and respond to police-related deaths should consider neighborhood context, including levels of segregation by income and race/ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-oriented social capital strategies and punitive-oriented policing approaches conflict. Establishing local networking initiatives with community-oriented policing at the centre lends itself to an assets-based policing approach, based on honouring, mobilizing and extending the assets of community members. Scholars argue about the need for comparative research on convergences and divergencies across subcultures on the streets and communities. Based on qualitative data gathered from working class communities in Scotland and Denmark in 2014, the article draws inspiration from community-generated theory of social capital to explore the micro-sociology of experiences and understandings about community-police integration policy initiatives. We use this perspective to argue that the building of positive inter-generational and police-community relationships is the result of social exchanges and officers’ use of what we call ‘constructive investment strategies’. Ironically, our insights from Scotland to Denmark also suggest what appear as positive achievements of community policing may instead intensify residents’ negative perceptions of police officers and organizations. In this way, the article illuminates the tangled and conflicted nature of these embedded symbolic interactions, social capital formations and the latter’s form as a potential positional and ‘tribal’ commodity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that corporal punishment and growing up in socially disorganized neighborhoods may have differential effects on children of color compared to White children. We test this idea by employing multilevel models with interaction terms to examine whether the associations of perceived neighborhood collective efficacy and maternal corporal punishment with behavior problems at age 5 differed by race/ethnicity. The analytic sample consisted of 2388 White, Black, or Hispanic families in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Covariates at the individual child, parent, and neighborhood levels were included to account for the racial/ethnic differences in structural and socioeconomic factors. Results demonstrate that race/ethnicity does not moderate the associations of maternal corporal punishment with internalizing or externalizing behavior problems in early childhood, nor does race/ethnicity moderate the association between neighborhood collective efficacy and externalizing behavior. However, the significant interaction between neighborhood collective efficacy and Hispanic ethnicity suggests that the protective role of collective efficacy on internalizing behavior is more pronounced in Hispanic children than White children. Overall, these findings underline the importance of multilevel interventions that strengthen neighborhood collective efficacy, particularly for Hispanic children, and of interventions that discourage physical discipline practices for young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mediation of disputes by community leaders in China has deep historical roots and has long been among the responsibilities of neighbourhoods and villages. While most research on the topic has looked at cities, mediation is in fact more common in the countryside. This paper draws on a survey conducted in 2002 (n =2,164) and repeated in 2010 (n =2,659), covering 23 villages in five provinces, which provides detailed data on conflict from disputants themselves. We examine the evolution of this much-debated mode of conflict resolution and assess its prevalence and effectiveness relative to alternatives. We find that, even as overall rates of disputing declined, seeking intervention by village authorities remained as common a response to disputes in 2010 as it was eight years prior. The paper thus sheds light on a primary means through which the party-state has tried to maintain stability, tamp down strife, and assert its primacy at the community level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the relative influences of neighborhood and school on the alcohol socialization process. Survey data from the Young in Oslo Study (N = 10,038, mean age 17.1 years, 52% girls) were used to investigate the details of such influences, using cross-classified multilevel models. School and neighborhood contexts were equally important for ordinary alcohol use; however, neighborhood influences were mainly explained by individual and family factors, whereas peer-based sociocultural processes played a key role in explaining school effects. Neither context had much impact on heavy episodic drinking. The study suggests that “privileged” youth may be at risk of high alcohol consumption. Parental influences and peer-based sociocultural aspects of the school milieu should be considered in prevention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine differences in mothers' subjective experiences of child‐rearing between 2 cohorts who lived in different eras of sociodemographic contexts and parenting norms. Background: A resource perspective suggests that child‐rearing experiences should be easier when mothers have a higher standard of living, higher education, and fewer children, as was the case for mothers in the 2000s compared with mothers in the 1970s. However, a cultural perspective indicates that the intensive mothering ideology, emerged in the 1980s, increased mothers' anxiety and stress over their children's safety and proper development. Method: Data from 2 national samples of mothers with children between 6 and 12 years of age in the United States collected in 1976 and 2002 (N = 2,465) were analyzed using ordinary least squares regression models. Results: Mothers in 2002 reported better neighborhood quality and better health of their children than mothers in 1976, even after sociodemographic advantages of mothers in 2002 relative to 1976 were taken into account. Despite these sociodemographic advantages of mothers in 2002, there was little difference in mothers' reports of their children's behavioral adjustments between the 2 cohorts. Furthermore, albeit among Whites only, mothers in 2002 reported more parental strain than did mothers in 1976. There was little variation in mothers' perceptions by socioeconomic status (as measured by a college degree). Conclusion: Our results support the idea of a stressed‐moms phenomenon in the contemporary United States, particularly among Whites. Implications: Experts who advise parent education policy and programs should take into account the psychological burden of the current neoliberal emphasis on personal responsibility for raising children on individual mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study aims to examine the role of place‐based online social communications in buffering the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and psychological distress using geo‐located Twitter feeds. We collected 1,981,802 geo‐tagged tweets posted within the physical boundaries of 78 neighborhoods located in Pittsburgh for 16 consecutive months, beginning July 15, 2013. Psychological distress was measured using sentiments expressed in tweets, and within‐ and between‐neighborhood online social communications were assessed using users’ Twitter activity. This study reveals differential effects of within‐ and between‐neighborhood online social communications. More online social communications within a neighborhood were associated with increased psychological sadness, anxiety, and distress in high‐poverty neighborhoods; a relationship that was not found in low‐poverty neighborhoods. This study suggests the buffering effects of online social communications may follow the same patterns as off‐line social support in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Considering the interactions between online spaces and neighborhoods may be important for planning and implementing neighborhood‐level interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disorganization theory is one of the most widely tested theories in criminology, yet few studies consider the temporal and spatial dynamics of neighborhood composition, neighborhood informal social control, and crime. To better understand these relationships, we use census data, police data, and three survey waves of data from a unique longitudinal dataset with over 4,000 respondents living across 148 neighborhoods in an Australian city undergoing rapid population growth. We employ cross-lagged reciprocal feedback models to test the central tenets of social disorganization theory and its contemporary advances for three crime types: violent crime, property crime, and drug crime. Further, we examine the reciprocal relationship between neighborhood composition, three components of informal social control (neighborhood social ties, expectations for informal social control, and the exercise of informal social control), and crime and whether socio-demographic changes in nearby neighborhoods shape these relationships over time. We find that changes in the socio-demographic composition in both focal and nearby areas influence neighborhood informal social control; however, in contrast to cross-sectional studies of social disorganization theory, our results reveal little support that neighborhood informal social control significantly decreases crime over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study explored association of neighborhood elements to children's health and related outcomes. Nationally representative data (N = 49,513,974, ages 6-17, 51.1% Male) was used to empirically define classes of neighborhoods based on presence or absence of various neighborhood elements. Analyses resulted in a three-class model: 1) "High Assets, Low Disorganization" (64.57%), 2) "High Assets, High Disorganization" (13.51%), and 3) "Few Assets, Low Disorganization" (21.91%). Class Membership was differentially associated with health, flourishing, and neighborhood cohesion. Results suggest health interventions should focus on increasing neighborhood assets, decreasing levels of neighborhood violence and poverty, and improving social dynamics of neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Based on our empirical evidence, this paper aims to provide a better understanding and analysis of the complexity and diversity of segregated Roma neighbourhoods in the context of Hungarian small towns. The paper explores the differences between the ‘ghetto’ and ‘ethnic neighbourhood’ as typical forms of spatial and social segregation of Roma in Hungary. It also discusses the mutual interplay of spatial and social segregation and social and symbolic boundary‐making within segregated neighbourhoods as well as between culturally and socially diverse Roma groups and non‐Roma living in the given settlements. Special attention is paid to the various social ties between Roma and non‐Roma in these communities. These ties are one of the key elements used to create and maintain ethnic and social hierarchy, further stratifying the unequal access to resources as well as exacerbating exclusion and boundary‐making mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper provides tentative empirical evidence against Robert D. Putnam's claim that ethnic diversity is a threat to collective civic action, and finds support for Robert J. Sampson's proposition that established organisations foster collective civic action. The aim of this paper is twofold: to describe: (i) the ways in which volunteers and professionals make sense of and understand the multicultural neighbourhood; and (ii) how that impacts on collective civic action in the neighbourhood. The paper takes a small scale mixed‐methods approach (9 semi structured interviews and a small scale quantitative survey (N = 39)), comparing two neighbourhoods with similar characteristics in terms of ethnic diversity and socio‐economic problems. The findings show that problems associated with ethnicity are not the most pressing ones for recent migrants. Instead they struggle with work, housing, a lack of supportive networks, unfamiliarity with the educational system, and language problems. The paper concludes that the multicultural discursive framework is a salutary one for those working and living in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Neighbourhood‐based research on the rise of super‐diverse cities has mostly focused on the implications of living in super‐diverse neighbourhoods for individual relations, and paid little attention to processes of group formation. This paper focuses on how residents of super‐diverse neighbourhoods identify social groups. Drawing on the concept of symbolic boundary making, it provides insights into how residents draw, enact and experience boundaries. Using the results of in‐depth interviews with residents in Antwerp and Rotterdam, we show that super‐diversity complexifies but does not counteract group formation. Residents draw multiple, interrelated symbolic boundaries along ethnic, class and religious lines and lines based on length of residence, which are sometimes used interchangeably. We also show that group boundaries are dynamic and constantly (re‐)created. Finally, we show that discursive boundaries do not necessarily lead to less social contact across these boundaries, thus illustrating that symbolic boundaries do not always result in segregated social patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the properties of administrative areas compared to a new method of automated redistricting when measuring social differentiation and segregation. Using physical barriers, such as roads, railways, streams, areas of uninhabited nature, and the like as dividers of social space, this study explores alternative ways of thinking social belonging and social cohesion that are beyond standard measures of geography and utilize areas of smaller size and population count. The geographical data are linked to Danish register data of the total Danish population in 2015, N = 4,986,125 on key variables of income, months of completed education, and ethnicity. The overall findings in this study suggest that rethinking geography when localizing social enclaves and segregated communities yields better results than using the more illogical administrative areas. The visual inspection, entropy levels of homogeneity, and intraclass correlation suggest that smaller areas that are divided by physical objects serve as a better reservoir of social cohesion and therefore better measurement of social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National fair housing legislation opened up higher opportunity neighborhoods to multitudes of middle-class African Americans. In actuality, the FHA offered much less to the millions of poor, Black residents in inner cities than it did to the Black middle class. Partly in response to the FHA's inability to provide quality housing for low-income blacks, Congress has pursued various mobility strategies designed to facilitate the integration of low-income Blacks into high-opportunity neighborhoods as a resolution to the persistent dilemma of the ghetto. These efforts, too, have had limited success. Now, just over fifty years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act and the Housing Choice Voucher Program (commonly known as Section 8), large numbers of African Americans throughout the country remain geographically isolated in urban ghettos. America's neighborhoods are deeply segregated and Blacks have been relegated to the worst of them. This isolation has been likened to colonialism of an urban kind. To combat the housing conditions experienced by low-income Blacks, in recent years, housing advocates have reignited a campaign to add "source of income" protection to the federal Fair Housing Act as a means to open up highopportunity neighborhoods to low-income people of color. This Article offers a critique of overreliance on integration and mobility programs to remedy urban colonialism. Integration's ineffectiveness as a tool to achieve quality housing for masses of economically-subordinated Blacks has been revealed both in the historically White suburbs and the recently gentrified inner city. Low-income Blacks are welcome in neither place. Thus, this Article argues that, focusing modern fair housing policy on the relatively small number of Black people for whom mobility is an option (either through high incomes or federal programs) is shortsighted, given the breadth of need for quality housing in economically-subordinated inner-city communities. As an alternative, this Article proposes, especially in the newly wealthy gentrified cities, that fair housing advocates, led by Black tenants, insist that state and local governments direct significant resources to economically depressed majority-minority neighborhoods and house residents equitably. This process of equitable distribution of local government resources across an entire jurisdiction, including in majority-minority neighborhoods, may be a critical step towards urban decolonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-density urban forms are often considered more livable than compact ones. Yet, studies investigating the relationship between compact cities and livability do not take into consideration the importance of public transport, accessibility and mix of land uses along with high densities. Moreover, direct comparisons of livability between the compact city and its alternative, urban sprawl, are scarce, and even more so in a European context. Investigating the metropolitan area of Oslo, which encompasses both compact and sprawled areas, this study examines the impact of the compact city on livability by employing neighbourhood satisfaction as a livability measure. Three different methods are used: cross-sectional regression analysis, longitudinal comparisons and qualitative analysis. Cross-sectional results indicate that compact-city residents are significantly more satisfied with their neighbourhood than those who live in sprawled neighbourhoods, even after controlling for sociodemographic and other variables. Longitudinal analysis based on residents who have lived in both neighbourhood types confirms this finding. This study also examines the impact of compactness within a wider range of urban form typologies and finds that the higher the density, the higher the neighbourhood satisfaction. Important components of the compact city – public transport, accessibility to city centre and land use mix – demonstrate a positive association with neighbourhood satisfaction. Findings from this study suggest that, when common urban problems are addressed, and when planned to integrate all its essential characteristics, the compact city has a positive influence on livability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the association between neighbourhood land use features and informal social control. More specifically, we examine the extent to which such features in combination with the socio-demographic context of the neighbourhood facilitate or impede collective efficacy and local civic actions. We achieve this through spatially integrating data from the census, topographic databases and a 2012 survey of 4132 residents from 148 neighbourhoods in Brisbane, Australia. The study creates a new classification of a neighbourhood’s physical environment by creating novel categories of land use features that depict social conduits, social holes and social wedges. Social conduits are features of the neighbourhood that facilitate interaction between individuals, social holes are land uses that create situations where there is no occupancy, and social wedges are features that carve up neighbourhoods. We find some evidence to suggest that residents’ reports of collective efficacy are higher in neighbourhoods with a greater density of social conduits. Density of social conduits is also positively associated with local civic action. However, in neighbourhoods with more greenspace, residents are less likely to engage in local civic actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine 2-year changes in weight status and behaviors among children living in neighborhoods differing on nutrition and activity environments.Methods: A prospective observational study, the Neighborhood Impact on Kids study, was conducted in King County, Washington, and San Diego County, California. Children 6 to 12 years old and a parent or caregiver completed Time 1 (n = 681) and Time 2 (n = 618) assessments. Children lived in neighborhoods characterized as "high/favorable" or "low/unfavorable" in nutrition and activity environments, respectively (four neighborhood types). Child BMI z score and overweight or obesity status were primary outcomes, with diet and activity behaviors as behavioral outcomes.Results: After adjusting for sociodemographics and Time 1 values, children living in two of the three less environmentally supportive neighborhoods had significantly less favorable BMI z score changes (+0.11, 95% CI: 0.01-0.21; + 0.12, 95% CI: 0.03-0.21), and all three less supportive neighborhoods had higher overweight or obesity (relative risks, 1.41-1.49; 95% CI: 1.13-1.80) compared with children in the most environmentally supportive neighborhoods. Changes in daily energy intake and sedentary behavior by neighborhood type were consistent with observed weight status changes, with unexpected findings for physical activity.Conclusions: More walkable and recreation-supportive environments with better nutrition access were associated with better child weight outcomes and related behavior changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spike Lee’s latest film, Chi-Raq, draws upon a portmanteau coined by local rappers to describe the violence and chaos of Chicago’s South Side, home of some of the most violent neighborhoods in America. City leaders condemned the title as inflammatory and hyperbolic, but this article argues the comparison is not as far afield as they suggest. Drawing from the literatures on state legitimacy, American gang formation, and the emerging scholarship surrounding the Islamic State, it is argued the two locations and their organized violent nonstate actors exhibit a host of important similarities. In both situations, the absence of services and protection delivered through the legitimate government has left a vacuum of both material goods and legitimacy, which fuels the genesis, growth, and stability of these extralegal organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The effects of exposure to violent events in adolescence have not been sufficiently studied in middle-income countries such as Brazil. The aims of this study are to investigate the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among 12-year-olds in two neighborhoods with different socioeconomic status (SES) levels in São Paulo and to examine the influence of previous violent events and SES on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders. Methods: Students from nine public schools in two neighborhoods of São Paulo were recruited. Students and parents answered questions about demographic characteristics, SES, urbanicity and violent experiences. All participants completed the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS) to obtain DSM-IV diagnoses. The data were analyzed using weighted logistic regression with neighborhood stratification after adjusting for neighborhood characteristics, gender, SES and previous traumatic events. Results: The sample included 180 individuals, of whom 61.3% were from low SES and 39.3% had experienced a traumatic event. The weighted prevalence of psychiatric disorders was 21.7%. Having experienced a traumatic event and having low SES were associated with having an internalizing (adjusted OR = 5.46; 2.17-13.74) or externalizing disorder (adjusted OR = 4.33; 1.85-10.15). Conclusions: Investment in reducing SES inequalities and preventing violent events during childhood may improve the mental health of youths from low SES backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gentrification critiques are often framed around direct displacement from neighborhoods due to rising rents and home values. The loss of affordable housing is depoliticized by contrasting the history of urban neighborhoods against the potential for economic vitality. However, physical displacement is only one facet of changing neighborhoods that has clear policy responses—the preservation and creation of affordable housing. The contests over public spaces that have emerged concurrent to the preservation of affordability in some gentrifying neighborhoods have created social and cultural displacement. Like its physical counterpart, this displacement is also depoliticized as the promise of “vibrant” future neighborhoods and its counterfactual, the dangerous and disinvested neighborhood, is pitted against the loss of culture in gentrifying neighborhoods. This article investigates the ways in which cultural and social displacement occur in public spaces in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. Not only do no residents use the specters of crime and disinvestment to depoliticize the exclusion of long-term African American and Latino residents from public spaces, but planners and policymakers accept and become complicit in these changes. Specifically, the depoliticization of gentrification in Columbia Heights is done through the use of youth and public safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is an ever-growing body of research on neighborhood effects on various forms of life chances, the suggested social mechanisms still refer to rather ambiguous theoretical concepts. Furthermore, previous research seldom adequately models the suggested social interdependence at the individual level. Instead, researchers largely rely on contextual regression models. This paper addresses both problems by using spatial econometrics to reconstruct neighborhood effects in terms of interdependent social action. To this end, a rational action model of neighborhood effects on educational outcomes is elaborated as a theoretical alternative. Furthermore, using data on the transition to secondary school in Switzerland as an illustration, spatial probit models are estimated to directly test neighborhood effects at the individual level. It can be shown how the interdependence of parental educational motivation within neighborhoods crucially shapes students’ transition to the more advantageous school track, thereby revealing an additional path by which educational inequalities are reproduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnographic data gathered over 12 months of fieldwork with unmarried women living alone or in flat-shares in different middle class South Delhi localities, this article traces the way shifting gendered norms – often epitomized by growing numbers of single women households – are negotiated within class specific and highly localized contexts of the residential neighborhood. Despite growing economic opportunities for middle class and elite women, cultural anxieties surrounding the notion of ‘delayed’ marriage and women living outside of the familial or marital home persist and obstruct attempts at establishing independent households. Single women experience difficulties finding apartments to rent; have to contend with hostile intrusions from neighbors; or feel obliged to self-monitor their behavior within their neighborhoods. As South Delhi’s liberalised urban landscape has become home to an increasingly globalized, consumerist middle class, disciplinary measures such as curfews, regulations over houseguests and increased surveillance simultaneously indicate a middle class recalibrating its gendered social coordinates by proving its commitment to values of female propriety. While popular discourses draw juxtaposed imaginaries of the ‘modern’ and the ‘traditional’ in their depictions of increasing individualism and a loosening of ‘traditional’ role expectations, this article demonstrates the need to consider the different structural conditions and local inflections in which struggles over women’s agency take place. Looking beyond the supposedly universalizing forces of globalized consumer modernity, the residential neighborhood hereby provides a view into the lived experiences of – at times incongruous – mechanisms at play in societies undergoing social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social norms are thought to motivate behaviors like political participation, but context should influence both the content and activation of these norms. I show that both race and neighborhood context moderate the social value of political participation in the United States. Using original survey data and a survey experiment, I find that Whites, Blacks, and Latinos not only conceptualize participation differently, but also asymmetrically reward those who are politically active, with minority Americans often providing more social incentives for participation than Whites. I combine this survey data with geographic demography from the American Community Survey and find that neighborhood characteristics outpace individual-level indicators in predicting the social value of political participation. The findings suggest that scholars of political behavior should consider race, place, and social norms when seeking to understand participation in an increasingly diverse America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the impact of community and neighborhood on time spent computer gaming. Computer gaming for over 20 hours a week was set as the cutoff line for “engaged use” of computer games. For the analysis, this study analyzed data for about 1,800 subjects who participated in the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey. The main findings are as follows: first, structural community characteristics and neighborhood social capital affected the engaged use of computer games. Second, adolescents who reside in regions with a higher divorce rate or higher residential mobility were likely to exhibit engaged use of computer games. Third, adolescents who highly perceive neighborhood social capital exhibited lower possibility of engaged use of computer games. Based on these findings, practical implications and directions for further study are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasing recognition of the critical importance of legal status for understanding the well‐being of immigrants and their families, there has been scant research on this topic. Using Wave 1 of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (2000–2002) and the 2000 decennial census, the authors investigated how parenting strain among Mexican‐origin mothers varies by legal status and neighborhood context. They found significant differences in parenting strain by nativity and legal status, with undocumented mothers reporting the lowest level. Results from multilevel models with cross‐level interactions reveal that the influence of neighborhood immigrant concentration differs by legal status. Percent foreign born in the neighborhood is associated with reduced parenting strain for documented Mexican‐origin mothers, whereas it is associated with heightened parenting strain for undocumented Mexican‐origin mothers. The findings provide empirical support for the need to recognize legal status distinctions in studies of the well‐being of immigrants and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]