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Social Contexts and Urban Adolescent Outcomes: The Interrelated Effects of Neighborhoods, Families, and Peers on African-American Youth

NCJ Number
194338
Journal
Social Problems Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2002 Pages: 79-100
Author(s)
Bruce H. Rankin; James M. Quane
Date Published
February 2002
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This article examined the relative importance of neighborhoods, families, and peers for both positive and negative adolescent outcomes, specifically urban African-American youth.
Abstract
Using multi-level data, this study assessed how three interrelated contexts, family, peer group, and neighborhoods, influenced the social functioning of urban African-American adolescent youth measured by their achieved social competency and problem behavior avoidance. The focus on African-American youth was due to them being frequent objects of public concern over their exposure to high levels of developmental risk, specifically in high-poverty neighborhoods. The study data source consisted of data from the Youth Achievement and the Structure of Inner City Communities study. The sample consisted of African-American mothers and up to two of their adolescent children, aged 11 to 16 living in 62 poor and mixed income urban Chicago neighborhoods with a high concentration of African-American residents. The study focused on two different youth outcomes, prosocial competence and problem behavior. The study showed that family factors were much more important predictors of adolescent outcomes than neighborhoods. For the urban African-American families, parenting and family normative orientations mattered more than socioeconomic resources or family structure. The study also indicated that the neighborhood effects on both successful and problematic adolescent outcomes were relatively modest. Families and peer groups were definitely more important as contextual factors affecting adolescents. The process by which neighborhoods impacted children was a highly contingent one requiring a better understanding of the interplay of neighborhood conditions, family and parenting types, and the characteristics of children. References