Neighborhoods, Schools, and Adolescent Violence: Ecological Relative Deprivation, Disadvantage Saturation, or Cumulative Disadvantage?

Neighborhood and school socioeconomic "disadvantage" are consequential for youth violence perpetration. This study considers alternative ecological cumulative disadvantage, disadvantage saturation, and relative deprivation hypotheses regarding how the association between neighborhood disadvantage and violence varies by levels of socioeconomic disadvantage in schools. These hypotheses are tested with data from Wave I of Add Health (n = 15,581; 51% Female; Age mean = 15.67, SD = 1.74). Cross-classified multilevel Rasch models are used to estimate the interaction between neighborhood and school disadvantage in predicting adolescent violence. Consistent with the ecological relative deprivation hypothesis, results indicate that the association between neighborhood disadvantage and violence is most pronounced among youth attending low-disadvantage schools. Further, youth exposed to high-disadvantage neighborhoods and low-disadvantage schools tend to be at the greatest risk of perpetrating violence. These patterns are evident among both males and females, and particularly among older youth and those from low-parent education families. This study motivates future investigations considering how adolescents' experiences beyond the neighborhood shape how they engage with and experience the effects of their neighborhoods.

Postsecondary Education, Neighborhood Disadvantage, and Crime: An Examination of Life Course Relative Deprivation.

The growing importance of a college degree for economic stability, coupled with increasing educational inequality in the United States, suggest potential criminogenic implications for downward educational mobility. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), this article examines the associations between intergenerational educational mobility, neighborhood disadvantage in adulthood, and crime. Drawing on the few extant studies of educational mobility and crime, as well as social comparison theory, it tests whether the consequences of downward educational mobility are moderated by neighborhood contexts. Results suggest that downward mobility is associated with increases in crime, and most strongly in more advantaged neighborhoods. The implications of these findings for future research on social mobility, education, and crime are discussed.

Parenthood Residency Status and Criminal Desistance across Neighborhood Contexts.

Research on desistance and parenthood has yielded mixed results bringing into question whether, and for whom, parenthood matters. Scholarship has not fully explored the importance of residency status or patterns of desistance across a full range of neighborhood contexts, nor examined distinctions between temporary and long-term desistance. Our study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine the association between parenthood residence and criminal desistance across levels of adolescent neighborhood poverty. Our findings demonstrate that parenthood has different meanings for desistance, depending on its duration, residency status, and neighborhood context.

Social Class, Family Formation, and Delinquency in Early Adulthood.

Recent research suggests increasing heterogeneity in the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. This study considers how this heterogeneity may influence delinquency between these two developmental periods. We focus on the role of family transitions, educational attainment, and employment in predicting risk of nonviolent delinquency and substance use, as well as disparities in transitions across socioeconomic status subgroups. Data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). We find that family and neighborhood advantage are negatively associated with transitions into marriage, cohabitation, and parenthood, yet positively associated with educational attainment. In addition, adolescent family and neighborhood advantage are associated with a continuation of delinquent behavior and substance use during early adulthood. In multivariate analyses, accounting for family transitions in early adulthood largely attenuates the relationship between neighborhood advantage in adolescence and delinquency in early adulthood. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for developmental criminology.

Educational Pathways and Change in Crime Between Adolescence and Early Adulthood.

OBJECTIVES: This article examines the relationship between intergenerational educational pathways and change in crime. Moreover, it examines the potential mediating roles of family and employment transitions, economic stressors, and social psychological factors. METHOD: Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 14,742) and negative binomial models are used to assess associations between educational pathways (i.e., upward, downward, and stable) and change in crime between adolescence and early adulthood. Selection effects are assessed with lagged dependent variables and controls for self-control, grades, and the Add Health Picture Vocabulary Test. RESULTS: Intergenerational educational pathways are significantly associated with changes in crime. Downward educational pathways were predictive of increases in crime, whereas upward pathways were associated with decreases in crime. These associations were partly mediated by family transitions, and more strongly by economic stressors. These results were robust to controls for selection related variables. CONCLUSIONS: This study is among the first to examine the relationship between intergenerational educational pathways and crime in the United States. Both upward and downward changes in educational attainments were found to be significant for crime. These findings are notable given the continuing expansion of higher education as well as concerns regarding increasing stratification and downward mobility in the United States.

Adolescent Survival Expectations: Variations by Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity.

Adolescent survival expectations are linked to a range of problem behaviors, poor health, and later socioeconomic disadvantage, yet scholars have not examined how survival expectations are differentially patterned by race, ethnicity, and/or nativity. This is a critical omission given that many risk factors for low survival expectations are themselves stratified by race and ethnicity. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we modeled racial, ethnic, and immigrant group differences in trajectories of adolescent survival expectations and assess whether these differences are accounted for by family, neighborhood, and/or other risk factors (e.g., health care access, substance use, exposure to violence). Findings indicated that most racial, ethnic, and immigrant groups were more pessimistic about their survival than were non-Hispanic whites, with the exception of Cuban youth, who were the most optimistic. Foreign-born Mexican youth had the lowest survival expectations, contrary to expectations from the "healthy-immigrant" hypothesis.

Paternal Incarceration and Adolescent Well-Being: Life Course Contingencies and Other Moderators.

Parental incarceration has been found to be associated with a wide range of negative outcomes in both childhood and adolescence. This Article uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to focus on the conditions under which associations of paternal incarceration with adolescent delinquency and depression are strongest. Paternal incarceration is most consistently and positively associated with adolescent delinquency. Associations of paternal incarceration with adolescent depression are weaker and more contingent on gender and other moderating factors. One important moderator is the respondent's retrospective reports that he or she was physically or sexually abused by a parent or other adult caregiver during childhood. For example, in the absence of sexual abuse, paternal incarceration is associated with higher depression among girls. When coupled with reports of sexual abuse, in contrast, paternal incarceration is not associated with girls' depression, suggesting a potential protective effect. The child having ever coresided with his or her father is also found to moderate associations, with paternal incarceration most strongly associated with delinquency and depression among girls who had ever coresided with their fathers. Examination of the duration and timing of paternal incarceration also pointed to gender differences.

The effect of direct and indirect exposure to violence on youth survival expectations.

PURPOSE: Research finds that adolescents gravely overestimate their risk of death and that these pessimistic attitudes correlate with risky behaviors undermining health and well-being; however, it remains unclear why adolescents have negative expectations about their survival. Because youth are most likely to be exposed to violence (as victims and/or witnesses), perhaps these experiences are key in undermining expectations about the future. We explored the effect of direct and indirect exposures to violence-across various contexts-on adolescents' survival expectations. METHODS: Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we tested the effect of violent experiences: individual direct and vicarious violence, familial and relational violence, school violence, and community violence on adolescents' expectations of surviving to 35 years of age. RESULTS: Victims of childhood physical abuse were less likely to expect to survive to 35 years of age. Although not significant at the conventional p < .05 level, violent victimization (being jumped, cut/stabbed, shot, or threatened with a weapon) and intimate partner violence were marginally associated with decreased survival expectations (p < .10). School and community violence undermined expectations at the bivariate level, but became nonsignificant after adjustments for individual demographic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Violent victimization in childhood and adolescence is a public health issue with both immediate and long-term consequences. Violence exposure severely compromises individuals' optimism about the future and places them at risk for behaviors that can further undermine well-being. Practitioners should be mindful of diminished survival expectations as a less overt consequence of exposure to violence.

IF THEY GROW UP: EXPLORING THE NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXT OF ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT SURVIVAL EXPECTATIONS.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this paper examines individual and neighborhood predictors of adolescent and young adult survival expectations - their confidence of surviving to age 35. Analyses revealed that within-person increases in depression and violent perpetration decreased the odds of expecting to survive. Individuals who rated themselves in good health and received routine physical care had greater survival expectations. Consistent with documented health disparities, Black and Hispanic youth had lower survival expectations than did their White peers. Neighborhood poverty was linked to diminished survival expectations both within and between persons, with the between person association remaining significant controlling for mental and physical health, exposure to violence, own violence, and a wide range of socio-demographic factors.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Neighborhood Attainments in the Transition to Adulthood.

This paper examines racial and ethnic differences in locational attainments in the transition to adulthood, using longitudinal data about neighborhoods of youth in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. It examines place stratification and life course models of locational attainment during the 1990s, a period during which neighborhood poverty rates were declining for many groups. The analysis reveals durable inequalities in neighborhood poverty from adolescence to young adulthood, particularly for blacks and Hispanic origin subgroups. Family socioeconomic status and emerging educational attainments are associated with decreases in neighborhood poverty, with blacks receiving a stronger return from educational attainments than whites. Despite the benefits of education, racial and ethnic minorities remain more likely to live in considerably more disadvantaged neighborhoods in young adulthood than whites.

Father's Incarceration and Youth Delinquency and Depression: Examining Differences by Race and Ethnicity.

This paper examines associations between biological father's incarceration and internalizing and externalizing outcomes of depression and serious delinquency, across White, Black, and Hispanic subsamples of youth in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Among respondents whose father was first incarcerated during childhood or adolescence, father's incarceration is found to be associated with increased depression and delinquency. On the whole, results indicate that associations between father's incarceration and depression and delinquency do not vary by race and ethnicity or gender. One exception is among Hispanic respondents, for whom having a biological father incarcerated is associated with an even higher propensity of delinquency than among White and Black respondents with incarcerated fathers.

Adolescent Work and Alcohol Use Revisited: Variations by Family Structure.

Previous research finds adolescent work hours to be associated with increased alcohol use. Most studies, however, fail to account for possible selection effects that lead youth to both work and substance use. Using data from the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 12,620), a fixed effects regression method is employed to control for stable between-person differences neglected by previous studies. Results show little relationship between work hours and alcohol use when controlling for individual heterogeneity. Results reveal variations, however, by family structure, with work hours being negatively associated with alcohol use among those from single-parent households. Although exhibiting significant main effects, family and peer processes fail to account for differences by family structure.

Paternal incarceration and trajectories of marijuana and other illegal drug use from adolescence into young adulthood: evidence from longitudinal panels of males and females in the United States.

AIMS: One-eighth of young adults in the United States report that their biological father has ever been incarcerated (FEI). This study is the first to examine associations between FEI and trajectories of substance use during the transition from adolescence into young adulthood for the US population. DESIGN: Using multi-level modeling techniques, trajectories of marijuana and other illegal drug use are examined, with FEI as the primary independent variable. SETTING: Data are from the first three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative sample of US adolescents beginning in 1995. PARTICIPANTS: Panels of 7157 males and 7997 females followed from adolescence (7th-12th grades) into early adulthood (ages 18-27 years). MEASUREMENTS: Dependent variables included an ordinal measure of marijuana frequency of use in last thirty days, and a dichotomous measure for whether respondent had any use in the last thirty days of illegal drugs such crystal meth, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, PCP, LSD, speed, and ecstasy. FINDINGS: Among males and females, respectively, FEI is associated with an increased frequency of marijuana use, and increased odds of any other illegal drug use. Interactions between FEI and age further reveal that FEI is associated with an accentuated trajectory (i.e. a steeper slope) of marijuana use, and an elevated risk (i.e. higher mean level) of other illegal drug use. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis provides some of the first evidence that paternal incarceration is significantly associated with drug use among U.S. males and females, even after controlling for a number of family background, parental, and individual characteristics.