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An Examination of Social Disorganization and Pluralistic Neighborhood Theories with Rural Mothers and Their Adolescents

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Abstract

Neighborhoods matter for youth; yet, most literature focuses on neighborhood deficits rather than strengths. To understand how best to capture neighborhoods, this study used census- and perception-based measures of neighborhood characteristics as suggested by social disorganization and pluralistic neighborhood theories, respectively, to determine the association between structural characteristics and perceptions of positive and negative neighborhood characteristics. The ethnically diverse (59% White and 34% African American) sample (N = 1,414) consisted of early adolescents (53% female) and their mothers. We found that participants perceived distinct positive and negative neighborhood characteristics. For adolescents and mothers, neighborhood structural characteristics were positively associated with risk perceptions (e.g., physical and social disorder) but differently associated with positive neighborhood characteristics. In addition, participants perceived their neighborhoods differently (e.g., adolescents perceived less informal social control but more cohesion than their mothers). We discuss the importance of the neighborhood context, particularly positive neighborhood characteristics, for rural families.

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Acknowledgments

The research for this article was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (R01 DA13459) to the second author; the first author’s work was supported by a post-doctoral fellowship from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (5 T32 HD007376).

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Correspondence to Dawn Witherspoon.

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Witherspoon, D., Ennett, S. An Examination of Social Disorganization and Pluralistic Neighborhood Theories with Rural Mothers and Their Adolescents. J Youth Adolescence 40, 1243–1253 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-009-9499-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-009-9499-4

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