Citation

Gardner M, Brooks‐Gunn J. J. Community Psychol. 2009; 37(4): 505-525.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/jcop.20310

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), we identified a significant inverse association between the variety of youth organizations available at the neighborhood level and adolescents' exposure to community violence. We examined two non-competing explanations for this finding. First, at the individual level, we tested the hypothesis that access to a greater variety of neighborhood youth organizations predicts adolescents' participation in organized community-based activities, which, in turn, protects against community violence exposure. Second, at the neighborhood level, we tested the hypothesis that lower violent crime rates explain the inverse relation between neighborhood youth organization variety and community violence exposure. Our findings supported the latter of these two mechanisms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.