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 disorder and individual economic self-sufficiency: New evidence from a quasi-experimental study

This paper draws on data from the Monitoring Mt. Laurel Study, a new survey-based study that enables us to compare residents living in an affordable housing project in a middle-class New Jersey suburb to a comparable group of non-residents. Building on the theoretical and empirical contributions of the Gautreaux and Moving to Opportunity studies, we test the hypothesis that living in this housing project improves a poor person’s economic prospects relative to what they would have experienced in the absence of such housing, and that these improved prospects can be explained at least in part by reduced exposure to disorder and stressful life events. We find that residents in the Ethel Lawrence Homes are significantly less likely to experience disorder and negative life events and that this improvement in circumstances indirectly improves the likelihood of being employed, their earnings, and the share of income from work. We find no relationship between residence in the housing project and the likelihood of using welfare.     

Housing and neighborhood quality among undocumented Mexican and Central American immigrants

Extensive research has documented the challenges that undocumented immigrants face in navigating U.S. labor markets, but relatively little has explored the impact of legal status on residential outcomes despite their widespread repercussions for social well-being. Using data from the 1996–2008 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to impute documentation status among Mexican and Central American immigrants, we examine group differences in residential outcomes, including homeownership, housing crowding, satisfaction with neighborhood and housing quality, problems with neighborhood crime/safety, governmental services, and environmental issues, and deficiencies with housing units. Results from our analysis indicate that undocumented householders are far less likely to be homeowners than documented migrants, and also live in more crowded homes, report greater structural deficiencies with their dwellings, and express greater concern about the quality of public services and environmental conditions in their neighborhoods. In comparison to native whites, undocumented migrants’ residential circumstances are lacking, but their residential outcomes tend to be superior to those of native-born blacks. Overall, our results highlight the pervasive impact of legal status on stratifying Mexicans’ and Central Americans’ prospects for successful incorporation, but also underscore the rigidity of the black/nonblack divide structuring American residential contexts.     

Neighborhood resources, racial segregation, and economic mobility: Results from the Gautreaux program

This study uses the unique design of the Gautreaux residential mobility program to estimate the long-run impacts of placement neighborhood conditions on the AFDC receipt (N = 793) and employment levels (N = 1258) of low-income Black women. We find that women initially placed in neighborhoods with few Black residents and moderate to high neighborhood resources experienced significantly more time employed when compared with women placed in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of Blacks and a low level of resources. Women placed in neighborhoods with high levels of resources and low Black populations also spent significantly less time on welfare than women placed in highly Black segregated areas with low levels of resources.     

The design of a multilevel survey of children, families, and communities: The Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey

In this paper, we describe the development and implementation of the multilevel sample design for the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey, a study of children, adults, families, and neighborhoods in Los Angeles County. This survey was designed to support multilevel analyses on a number of topics, including child development, residential mobility, and welfare reform. We describe the design of the baseline wave, highlighting the analytical and statistical issues that shaped the study. We also present the results of an in-depth statistical investigation of the survey’s ability to support multilevel analyses that was carried out as part of the study design. The results of this study provide important guideposts for future studies of neighborhoods and their effects on adults and children.     

The Child's View of Neighborhood

SUMMARY

The research presented in this paper contributes to the social work profession by uncovering the child-neighborhood relationship as an element for assessment in direct social work practice. Neighborhood is often viewed as the domain of macro level practice. However, in direct social work practice, aspects of the broader social and physical environment are often omitted. The results of this qualitative study, in which 59 fourth and fifth graders were queried about their neighborhoods, indicate that the child-neighborhood relationship be viewed as a vital facet in direct practice assessments. Specifically, the findings suggest that four distinct components be included in the assessment of child-neighborhood relationships. Implications for the inclusion of neighborhood in bio-psycho-social assessments with children are discussed.     

Youth perceptions of neighborhood hassles and resources: A mixed method analysis

Empirical investigations exploring the processes and mechanisms of neighborhood influences on child and youth development are needed to contribute to the growing body of research on neighborhood as a context for development. Using a mixed method design, this study examined the relationship between structurally identified resources in three urban public housing neighborhoods, youth perceptions and experiences of resources, and youth report of neighborhood hassles and cohesion. Survey data from 153 ethnically and culturally diverse youth between 6th and 8th grade were analyzed using regression analyses; constant comparative analysis was used to code interviews from a subsample of 22 youth. Results indicated an inverse relationship between the number of neighborhood resources and the level of daily hassles youth report. Analysis of mixed method results further highlights the importance of young people's perceptions of neighborhood influences.     

Designing an Ageless Social Community: Adapting a New Urbanist Social Core to Suit Baby Boomers in Later Life

ABSTRACT

Since 90% of older adults prefer aging in place (Wang, Shepley, & Rodiek, 2012), it is important that neighborhood design supports successful aging. Beyond basic needs, research indicates quality interaction is associated with positive health and well-being benefits, particularly for older adults. In this, design supporting social relationships plays an essential role. This study's purpose was to identify New Urbanist neighborhood and social space design attributes supporting older residents' physiological and social needs. This case study used keyword-in-context analysis with focus group interview data to identify domains supporting social interaction for residents aging in place including: location factors, social factors, design factors, and programmatic factors.     

The effects of spatial patterns of neighborhood risk factors on adverse birth outcomes

Neighborhood environments play an important role in shaping health. But how do the conditions of surrounding neighborhoods affect health? Specifically, how do the spatial patterns of neighborhood characteristics shape birth outcomes? Using Census and health data from Wyandotte County, Kansas, we analyze the relationship between spatial patterns of socio-demographic risk factors and incidence of low weight births in neighboring block groups. Using spatial filtering with eigenvectors we identify significant socio-demographic patterns and use them as predictors of low-weight births in a regression model. We identify several patterns that predict significant variability in birth outcomes and find that while some factors, like unemployment, have strong internal neighborhood effects on birth weight they may not have strong external neighborhood effects. We argue spatial filtering methods may improve our understanding of persistent inequalities in health by helping to identify the differential effects of proximate social conditions and spatial interdependencies.     

Pioneer artists and middle class settlers: Lifestyle variables and neighborhood succession

The theme of the displacement of early pioneers by later settlers in certain American cinema westerns offers an analogy to describe certain aspects of contemporary urban social change. The SoHo district of New York City represents an empirical referent, illustrating how an initial population of low income artists (pioneers) invaded a commercial and industrial area, converting business/manufacturing spaces to residential/work spaces. Their actions modified the area to such an extent that more affluent middle-class households (settlers) could enter and, in some instances, displace the earlier residents. This process illustrates the ecological concepts of invasion, succession, and adaptation, and helps explain the current patterns of neighborhood revitalization and gentrification taking place in a number of older inner cities.Albert Hunter, Herbert M. Hunter, Simon J. Bronner, and Gerald D. Suttles made a number of useful suggestions to this article. Amos H. Hawley clarified a number of theoretical points, and Robert B. Wolf made the paper more readable through his careful editing. Funds were provided, in part, from the Capital College Fund for Research.James R. Hudson holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan and is currently Coordinator of the Behavioral Science Program at the Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, Middletown, PA 17057. He recently publishedThe Unanticipated City (University of Massachusetts Press, 1987) and continues his interest in the changing social organization of older inner cities.