TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2014//
TI  - Neighborhoods and adolescent health-risk behavior: an ecological network approach
JO  - Social science and medicine (1982)
A1  - Browning, Christopher R.
A1  - Soller, Brian
A1  - Jackson, Aubrey L.
SP  - 163
EP  - 172
VL  - 125
IS  - 
N2  - This study integrates insights from social network analysis, activity space perspectives, and theories of urban and spatial processes to present an novel approach to neighborhood effects on health-risk behavior among youth. We suggest spatial patterns of neighborhood residents' non-home routines may be conceptualized as ecological, or "eco"-networks, which are two-mode networks that indirectly link residents through socio-spatial overlap in routine activities. We further argue structural configurations of eco-networks are consequential for youth's behavioral health. In this study we focus on a key structural feature of eco-networks - the neighborhood-level extent to which household dyads share two or more activity locations, or eco-network reinforcement - and its association with two dimensions of health-risk behavior, substance use and delinquency/sexual activity. Using geographic data on non-home routine activity locations among respondents from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS), we constructed neighborhood-specific eco-networks by connecting sampled households to "activity clusters," which are sets of spatially-proximate activity locations. We then measured eco-network reinforcement and examined its association with dimensions of adolescent health risk behavior employing a sample of 830 youth ages 12-17 nested in 65 census tracts. We also examined whether neighborhood-level social processes (collective efficacy and intergenerational closure) mediate the association between eco-network reinforcement and the outcomes considered. <br><br>RESULTS indicated eco-network reinforcement exhibits robust negative associations with both substance use and delinquency/sexual activity scales. Eco-network reinforcement effects were not explained by potential mediating variables. In addition to introducing a novel theoretical and empirical approach to neighborhood effects on youth, our findings highlight the importance of intersecting conventional routines for adolescent behavioral health.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0277-9536
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.06.028
ID  - ref1
ER  -