Citation

Roche KM, Webster DW, Alexander CS, Ensminger ME. Adolesc. Fam. Health 2003; 3(2): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Instutute for Youth Development)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Despite the growing body of neighborhood-effects research related to youth behavior, remarkably little is known about the salience of neighborhood attributes to family social processes. In this study, multi-level data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were used to explore how neighborhood socioeconomic advantage modified the association between family support and fighting among 12- to 16-year-old males living in urban areas (n = 2,367). Results indicated neighborhood modifying influences on family support that varied by the youth’s racial/ethnic background. Among White boys, high levels of family connectedness were more strongly related to lower levels of fighting when youth lived in socioeconomically advantaged neighborhood contexts. Among later generation Latinos, low levels of family connectedness were more strongly related to greater fighting when youth lived in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. Neighborhood advantage did not modify the relationship between family support and fighting among immigrant Latino or African American males.