A multilevel analysis of change in neighborhood walking activity in older adults

The article reports on a multilevel analysis conducted to examine change in neighborhood walking activity over a 12-month period in a community-based sample of 28 neighborhoods of 303 older adults age 65 and over. The study employed a multilevel (residents nested within neighborhoods) and longitudinal (4 repeated measures over 1 year) design and a multilevel analysis of change and predictors of change in neighborhood walking activity. Results indicated a significant neighborhood effect, with neighborhood-level walking characterized by a downward trajectory over time. Inclusion of baseline variables using selected perceived neighborhood-level social- and physical-environment measures indicated that neighborhoods with safe walking environments and access to physical activity facilities had lower rates of decline in walking activity. The findings provide preliminary evidence of neighborhood-level change and predictors of change in walking activity in older adults. They also suggest the importance of analyzing change in physical activity in older adults from a multilevel or macrolevel framework.     

Neighborhood influences on physical activity in middle-aged and older adults: a multilevel perspective

Over the past few years, attention has been drawn to the importance of neighborhood influences on physical activity behavior and the need to consider a multilevel analysis involving not only individual-level variables but also social- and physical-environment variables at the neighborhood level in explaining individual differences in physical activity outcomes. This new paradigm raises a series of issues concerning systems of influence observed at different hierarchical levels (e.g., individuals, neighborhoods) and variables that can be defined at each level. This article reviews research literature and discusses substantive, operational, and statistical issues in studies involving multilevel influences on middle-aged and older adults' physical activity. To encourage multilevel research, the authors propose a model that focuses attention on multiple levels of influence and the interaction among variables characterizing individuals, among variables characterizing neighborhoods, and across both levels. They conclude that a multilevel perspective is needed to increase understanding of the multiple influences on physical activity.     

Neighborhood mechanisms and the spatial dynamics of birth weight

This study addresses two questions about why neighborhood contexts matter for individuals via a multilevel, spatial analysis of birthweight for 101,662 live births within 342 Chicago neighborhoods. First, what are the mechanisms through which neighborhood structural composition is related to health? The results show that mechanisms related to stress and adaptation (violent crime, reciprocal exchange and participation in local voluntary associations) are the most robust neighborhood-level predictors of birth weight. Second, are contextual influences on health limited to the immediate neighborhood or do they extend to a wider geographic context? The results show that contextual effects on birth weight extend to the social environment beyond the immediate neighborhood, even after adjusting for potentially confounding covariates. These findings suggest that the theoretical understanding and empirical estimation of 'neighborhood effects' on health are bolstered by collecting data on more causally proximate social processes and by taking into account spatial interdependencies among neighborhoods.     

Neighborhood and individual factors in activity in older adults: results from the neighborhood and senior health study

This study examined whether features of the built environment and residents' perceptions of neighborhood walkability, safety, and social cohesion were associated with self-reported physical activity (PA) and community-based activity among a sample of 190 older adults (mean age 74) residing in 8 Denver neighborhoods. Neighborhood walking audits were conducted to assess walkability and social capital. In multilevel analyses, a few walkability variables including curb cuts, crosswalks, and density of retail predicted greater frequency of walking for errands (p < .05), but mean frequency of walking for errands for this sample was low (<1/wk). Contrary to expectations, total PA and community-based activity were highest in neighborhoods with fewer walkability variables but higher respondent perceptions of safety and social cohesion (p < .01). For seniors, the importance of characteristics of the built environment in promoting PA and general activity engagement might be secondary to attributes of the social environment that promote safety and social cohesion.     

RESIDENTIAL STABILITY, NEIGHBORHOOD RACIAL COMPOSITION, AND THE SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF NEIGHBORHOOD PROBLEMS AMONG OLDER ADULTS

This study investigates the effects of neighborhood racial composition and residential stability—as measured by the percentage of individuals who have lived in the same location for the past five years—on perceived neighborhood problems. Among a sample of older black and white adults, findings indicate that the patterns are contingent upon residents' race. For whites who reside in neighborhoods with a low percentage of black residents, greater residential stability is associated with fewer perceived neighborhood problems net of individual- and neighborhood-level disadvantage. For blacks, greater residential stability is associated with fewer neighborhood problems, but the percentage of black residents is associated with more neighborhood problems. In both cases, individual- and neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantages contribute to those patterns. These findings have implications for theories about the personal and social effects of residential stability and neighborhood racial composition, as well as race differences in the links between neighborhood context and the subjective assessment of neighborhood problems.     

Race differentials in obesity: the impact of place

This article reveals race differentials in obesity as both an individual- and neighborhood-level phenomena. Using neighborhood-level data from the 1990-1994 National Health Interview Survey, we find that neighborhoods characterized by high proportions of black residents have a greater prevalence of obesity than areas in which the majority of the residents are white. Using individual-level data, we also find that residents of neighborhoods in which at least one-quarter of the residents are black face a 13 percent increase in the odds of being obese compared to residents of other communities. The association between neighborhood racial composition and obesity is completely attenuated after including statistical controls for the poverty rate and obesity prevalence of respondents' neighborhoods. These findings support the underlying assumptions of both institutional and social models of neighborhood effects.     

Neighborhood co-offending networks,structural embeddedness,and violent crime in Chicago

Neighborhood disparities in crime are a persistent feature of U.S. cities. Scholars have documented that both local structural conditions and characteristics of spatially proximate communities influence neighborhood crime rates. Previous studies on neighborhood inequality in crime, however, are limited by their focus on identifying average spillover effects between pairs of spatially contiguous neighborhoods, and have neglected to consider how the broader social organization of the city influences local outcomes. This study examines the role of neighborhood-level criminal networks in shaping the distribution of crime throughout cities. Employing arrest records and survey data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, we construct a neighborhood-level co-offending network for Chicago for 2001. We use this network to investigate how a focal neighborhood’s homicide rate is influenced by its structural embeddedness within the larger inter-neighborhood co-offending network. Results indicate that a neighborhood’s embeddedness increases the local homicide rate, even after controlling for the neighborhood’s internal propensity toward crime and accounting for unobserved spatial processes.     

Evaluating Potential Environmental Variables and Active Aging in Older Adults for Age-Friendly Neighborhoods in Malaysia

As Malaysia's population is aging rapidly, and since there is no specific housing policy for the elderly, it is vital that neighborhoods meet the different needs of elderly for active aging to maintain their quality of life. This study aims to investigate the neighborhood environmental variables, the outcome active aging, and potential variables that inhibit active aging in the elderly that lead to their quality of life. It examined quality-of-life determinants that are influenced by the existence of certain neighborhood characteristics. In the study, 385 older adults aged 60+ years residing in two different cities in Malaysia were surveyed. Multiple regression was used to explore how much variance in active aging variables the neighborhood environmental factors explained as a group. The results showed that permeability, accessibility, and facilitators to walking are key determinants of active aging. There is a need to improve the physical design of the neighborhoods with regard to these three factors.     

Neighborhood Structure,Social Organization,and Number of Short‐Term Sexual Partnerships

We examine the relationship between neighborhood structural characteristics, social organization, and the sexual partnering practices of adults. Analyses of 1990 census and 1995–1997 survey‐based data on Chicago neighborhoods and adult sexual activity reveal for men a number of neighborhood influences on sexual partnering practices. First, residential stability is negatively associated with having a short‐term sexual partner in the last year. Second, neighborhood social ties are positively associated with short‐term sexual partnering in neighborhoods with low levels of collective efficacy—the combination of cohesion and shared expectations for beneficial action among neighbors—but this effect is substantially reduced as collective efficacy increases. Moreover, neighborhood collective efficacy and social ties mediate the effect of residential stability on sexual partnering practices. Neighborhood characteristics were not associated with short‐term sexual partnering for women.     

Functional Ability,Neighborhood Resources and Housing Satisfaction among Older Adults in the U.S.

The purpose of this study was to explore neighborhood resources that influence the housing satisfaction of older adults. The study included 10,146 participants from the 2009 panel of the American Housing Survey who were 65 years and older. Hierarchical regression modeling was performed to examine older adults’ perceptions of neighborhood resources and consequently the role these resources play in predicting housing satisfaction among community dwelling and residents of assisted living, controlling for age, sex, ethnicity, education, and housing maintenance. In addition, three levels of physical functioning among residents of assisted living were examined. Results showed that there were differences in housing satisfaction by residences and levels of physical functioning. Subjective evaluations of neighborhoods and the near surrounds were significant predictors of housing satisfaction. Results of the study suggest that policy makers and housing professionals need to continue to consider the role of supportive neighborhoods and social environments in promoting successful aging particularly for frail older adults.     

A Review and Application of Existing Theories in Neighborhood Research: Toward a Model for Social Work Practice

The application of existing theory in regard to assessing and addressing neighborhoods from a social work perspective is largely unexplored. Current theories informing neighborhood-level interventions draw little on social work literature. The purpose of this paper is to explore literature from varied fields to assess their utility and inform neighborhood-level intervention methods for social workers. Examining neighborhood theory from all fields and comparing it to those most commonly used in social work is helpful to understanding how practitioners can advance this work and research.     

Effects of Neighborhood Inequality on the Relative Distance between Objective Position and Subjective Identification

This article is an exploratory attempt to assess the relationship between an individual's objective class position and their subjective class identification and to understand the effects of neighborhood inequality on individual variations. It tests three theses that the relationship between objective class position and subjective identification: is based on reflection, middle-class consciousness or variation. The degree to which neighborhood-level variables impact on the relative distance between objective class position and subjective identification is examined in assessing the possible contextual effects of the spatial setting individuals in which individuals are located. It utilizes 2015 City Policy Index Survey data administered by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and goes through two steps in analysis. First, a correspondence analysis was performed to calculate the relative distance between individuals’ objective position and subjective identification. The relative distance calculated was used as a dependent variable in a multilevel linear model examining the possible cross-level interaction between neighborhood inequality and individual-level variables. The results indicate that the relationship between an individual's objective class position and subjective identification was captured in the variation thesis. Women, and people who are younger, college educated and who hold non-manual occupations are more likely to identify with a position that is lower than their actual position. Neighborhood inequality was found to exaggerate the gap in relative distance scores by gender and occupation.     

THE ECOLOGY OF AGING: NEIGHBORHOOD SATISFACTION IN AN OLDER POPULATION*

This paper explores the determinants of neighborhood satisfaction for a population of older persons. Here neighborhood satisfaction is presumed to be the result of a complicated process involving: objective qualities in the neighborhood, the psychological and physical state of the person making the evaluation, as well as the person's own subjective definitions of the neighborhood. The intent of this research is to weigh the significance of these objective neighborhood conditions, subjective definitions, and the individual's level of environmental docility for the determination of neighborhood satisfaction among the elderly. To investigate this issue a random sample of 1,185 respondents 60 years and older was interviewed in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York SMSA. The data suggest that while all three general factors are significant in the production of neighborhood satisfaction, mental portraits of the neighborhood are the most significant source of neighborhood satisfaction. This finding indicates support for a synthesis of symbolic interactionist and traditional ecological models of environmental response. Clearly, for this sample, older persons sharing the same neighborhoods do not necessarily occupy the same environmental worlds.     

The Combined Effect of Women's Neighborhood Resources and Collective Efficacy on IPV

This study integrates gender stratification and social disorganization theories to examine neighborhood effects on intimate partner violence (IPV). Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, multilevel models assessed the influences of women's neighborhood‐level socioeconomic resources relative to men's and collective efficacy on a woman's risk of IPV victimization by her spouse or cohabiting partner. The findings indicate that women's relative neighborhood resources protect against IPV victimization only in neighborhoods with sufficiently high collective efficacy. Likewise, the results show that collective efficacy protects against IPV victimization only when women have at least a modicum of control over neighborhood resources compared to men. The findings emphasize the importance of considering group resources along with neighborhood social organization to better understand IPV. More broadly, this study demonstrates how a group's position in a neighborhood social hierarchy helps determine the extent to which its members benefit from neighborhood social control.     

The Roles of Instability and Housing in Low-Income Families’ Residential Mobility

Given the repercussions of residential mobility, increased understanding of correlates of mobility is important for efforts to support family well-being. Using survey data on low-income families from the Three City Study (N = 2393), multilevel mixed longitudinal analyses examined factors associated with family residential mobility across the domains of family instability, housing and neighborhood contexts, and family characteristics. Results revealed contributions of family instability and housing and neighborhood contexts to residential mobility, with a higher rate of residential moves associated with experiences of intimate partner violence, relationship transitions, and job transitions, as well as with living in private-market rentals, substandard housing, and disordered neighborhoods. However, owning a home and living in disadvantaged neighborhoods predicted a lower rate of residential moves.     

Seven years later: effects of a neighborhood mobility program on poor Black and Latino adults' well-being

This study explored program effects on adults' well-being seven years following the implementation of a court-ordered neighborhood mobility program. Low-income black and Latino adults residing in poor, segregated neighborhoods in Yonkers, New York were randomly selected to relocate to publicly funded townhouses in middle-class neighborhoods within the city. Adults who moved (n = 141) and demographically similar adults who were not selected to move (n = 106) were interviewed. Data indicate that 85 percent of adults who moved to the new housing remained there at follow-up. Results revealed that adults who moved resided in neighborhoods with higher collective efficacy and less disorder and danger but had fewer neighborhood social ties than adults who stayed in poor neighborhoods. Movers were also more likely to work and less likely to receive welfare than nonmovers. Adults who remained in low-poverty neighborhoods at the time of the follow-up reported better physical health than adults residing in poor neighborhoods, but mental health did not vary by neighborhood.     

Neighborhood processes, self-efficacy, and adolescent mental health

Self-efficacy beliefs are central to mental health. Because adolescents' neighborhoods shape opportunities for experiences of control, predictability, and safety, we propose that neighborhood conditions are associated with adolescents' self-efficacy and, in turn, their internalizing problems (i.e., depression/anxiety symptoms). We tested these hypotheses using three waves of data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (N = 2,345). Results indicate that adolescents living in violent neighborhoods tended to report lower self-efficacy beliefs, partly because they were more likely to experience fear in their neighborhood. However, moving out of Chicago neighborhoods marked by violence and low collective efficacy to neighborhoods outside of the city was associated with adolescents' increased self-efficacy (vs. staying in such neighborhoods), an association explained by adolescents' school-related experiences. Finally, through self-efficacy, these neighborhood processes had an indirect association with adolescents' internalizing problems. Results partially support a model linking neighborhood conditions, cognitions about the self, and emotions.     

How beliefs about substance use differ by socio-demographic characteristics,individual experiences,and neighborhood environments among urban adolescents

In this article, we tested a series of Item Response Theory (IRT) models to examine the individual and neighborhood variation in perceived risk along dimensions of substance use (alcohol, marijuana, and hard drugs) and usage patterns (light/experimental use, moderate use, heavy/regular use). Data were gathered from 2266 adolescents aged 9, 12, and 15 residing in 79 Chicago neighborhoods. Developmental patterns for age and amount of use were observed whereby older respondents rated alcohol and marijuana as less harmful compared to the younger respondents, but rated hard drugs as more harmful. Risk perceptions were found to be more closely tied to one's direct experience with drugs rather than a general constellation of beliefs. Neighborhood variation in risk perceptions was also observed for hard drugs and three patterns of use, controlling for characteristics of individual residents. Neighborhoods did not vary in risk perceptions toward alcohol use. Individual-level factors rather than characteristics of the neighborhoods explained the observed neighborhood variation in perceptions toward marijuana use. These findings illustrate the complex links between individual and contextual factors in the development of beliefs about the health risks associated with substance use.