A NEIGHBORHOOD-CENTERED APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTS: AN APPLICATION TO THREE RISK BEHAVIORS IN ADOLESCENCE AND YOUNG ADULTHOOD Tara D. Warner A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2012 Committee: Raymond R. Swisher, Advisor Michael E. Buerger Graduate Faculty Representative Peggy C. Giordano Danielle C. Kuhl Wendy D. Manning ii ABSTRACT Raymond R. Swisher, Advisor Bridging macrosociological life course, place stratification, and social disorganization theories, this study advances a “neighborhood-centered” approach to study one of the developmental contexts of adolescent and young adult behavior. This approach extends neighborhood effects research and addresses limitations of existing life course and neighborhoods scholarship by explicitly highlighting the social structural forces—as embodied in the patterning of a finite set of neighborhood types—that anchor trajectories of risk behaviors in adolescence. Using four waves of nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), latent class analysis, and growth curve modeling, I first identify distinct neighborhood types patterned by the intersection of three key components of structural inequality: race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and geography. Second, I examine how trajectories of delinquency, sexual activity, and marijuana use during adolescence and into young adulthood differ across neighborhood types, and the extent to which neighborhoods shape these behaviors directly and indirectly (through theorized individual, family, and peer mediators). Results from the latent class analysis both demonstrate the complex ways in which indicators of stratification intersect to shape specific neighborhood contexts, and provide the foundation for a multidimensional classification of these contexts. Results from a series of three- level growth curve models illustrate significant variation in trajectories across neighborhood types—variation heretofore unobserved in neighborhoods research, and largely unexplained by individual, family, and peer mediators. A neighborhood-centered approach reorients scholarly thinking about neighborhoods as developmental contexts, devoting explicit attention to the stratifying forces bringing about distinct neighborhood types that anchor and shape trajectories of risk behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks are due to my chair and advisor, Dr. Ray Swisher, for your mentorship and guidance on this project. I am thankful to my committee members, Drs. Peggy Giordano, Danielle Kuhl, Wendy Manning, and Michael Buerger—your questions, comments, and critiques helped shape and strengthen this project. In addition to your involvement in this dissertation, my collaborations with Drs. Swisher, Giordano, Manning, and Kuhl during my time at BGSU have been invaluable in my growth as a scholar, and I very much appreciate those opportunities. I am grateful to my parents, who have always supported my academic aspirations. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my husband, David, because without you—and your unwavering love, support, and encouragement—I would not be the person I am today. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. 1 Scientific Practice: Identifying the Problem and Recognizing What Remains Unknown. .1 Recognizing the Limitations of What We Think We Already Know. .3 Neighborhoods as Social—and Socially Stratified—Places. 5 Neighborhood Research Today: The Tension Between Theory and Method. 7 Overcoming the Limitations and Moving Science Forward. .11 Organization of Subsequent Chapters. 13 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE. 17 Early Contextual Thinkers and the Chicago School. 19 The Geographic Distribution of Social Problems. .21 Social Cleavages and the Distribution of Types of Places. 23 Racial/Ethnic Stratification and Segregation. 25 Class Stratification and Segregation. 28 Geographic Stratification and Segregation. 31 Neighborhoods as Contexts for Development. 35 Neighborhoods as Opportunity Structures. 35 Neighborhoods as Status Cue. 37 Neighborhoods as Early Life Experience with Long Term Consequences. 38 The Current State of Research on Neighborhoods in Adolescence. 39 Neighborhood Effects on Violence and Delinquency. 42 Neighborhood Effects on Sexual Activity. 45 Neighborhood Effects on Substance Use. 47 Limitations in the Extant Research on Neighborhoods in Adolescence. 49 v Overcoming the Limitations: A Neighborhood-Centered Approach to Capturing Context. 54 Specific Aims. 57 CHAPTER 3: DATA AND METHODS. 61 Data. 61 Analytic Samples. 63 Measures. 68 Independent Variables. 68 Neighborhood-Level Compositional Characteristics. 68 Dependent Variables. .73 Independent Variables. 76 Individual-Level Explanatory Variables. 76 Indicators of Neighborhood Accessibility. 77 Mediators of Neighborhood Effects. .77 Analytic Strategies. 80 Generating A Neighborhood Typology. 80 A Neighborhood-Centered Approach to Examining Adolescent Risk Behaviors over Time. 84 CHAPTER 4: CAPTURING CONTEXT THROUGH A NEIGHBORHOOD-CENTERED APPROACH. 96 Labeling Neighborhood Types. 98 CHAPTER 5: A NEIGHBORHOOD-CENTERED APPROACH TO ADOLESCENT CONTEXT AND TRAJECTORIES OF DELINQUENCY. 121 CHAPTER 6: THE NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXT OF ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT SEXUAL ACTIVITY. 151 CHAPTER 7: LINKING NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXTS TO ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT MARIJUANA USE. .180 vi CHAPTER 8: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION. 207 Summary of Findings. 208 Overall Summary Across Outcomes. 216 Implications for Policy. 222 Limitations. 225 Directions for Future Research. 228 Conclusion. 232 REFERENCES. .234 APPENDIX: HUMAN SUBJECTS REVIEW BOARD APPROVAL . 263 vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 3.1. Exploratory Factor Analysis of Census Tract Variables. .89 Table 3.2. Distribution of Respondents Across Rural-Urban Commuting Areas. 90 Table 3.3. Descriptive Characteristics for Indicators of Neighborhood Type. 91 Table 3.4. Distribution of Dependent Variables Across Respondent Ages. 92 Table 3.5. Measures of Individual, Peer, and Family Mediators and Demographics. 93 Table 3.6. Descriptive Statistics of Independent Variables for Growth Curve Analyses. 95 Table 4.1. Summary of Selection Criteria for Number of Latent Classes of Neighborhood Type. 106 Table 4.2. Latent Class Analysis Profile Characteristics for Predominantly White Neighborhood Types. .107 Table 4.3. Latent Class Analysis Profile Characteristics for Non-White Neighborhood Types. 113 Table 4.4. Select Descriptive Characteristics of Neighborhood Types. 119 Table 4.5. Distribution of Respondents and Census Tracts Across Neighborhood Types. 120 Table 4.6. Distribution of Respondents Across Neighborhood Types by Respondent Race/Ethnicity. 120 Table 5.1. Effect of Neighborhood Type on Trajectories of Adolescent and Young Adult Delinquent Perpetration. 139 Table 5.2. Assessing the Role of Individual Characteristics in Explaining the Effect of Neighborhood Type on Trajectories of Adolescent and Young Adult Delinquent Perpetration. 143 Table 5.3. Assessing the Role of Family Characteristics in Explaining the Effect of Neighborhood Type on Trajectories of Adolescent and Young Adult Delinquent Perpetration. ..