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Evidence Base Home » Neighborhoods » Neighborhood disadvantage and disorder increases adolescent risk behaviors that may affect their long-term health and well-being

Articles in Neighborhood disadvantage and disorder increases adolescent risk behaviors that may affect their long-term health and well-being.

  • Adolescents living in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty and distress tend to have lower level of scholastic achievement and a higher risk of dropping out of school.

    Turley RNL. 2003. When do neighborhoods matter? The role of race and neighborhood peers. Social Science Research 32(1): 61-79
    Ensminger M, Lamkin RP, Jacobson N. 1996. School leaving: a longitudinal perspective including neighborhood effects. Child Development 67: 2400–2416.

  • In a study using a community sample of urban African American adolescents, perceptions of neighborhood disorganization such as violence and drug activity in grade 7 were associated with increased tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use in grade 9.

    Lambert SF, Brown TL, Phillips CM, Ialongo NS. 2004. The relationship between perceptions of neighborhood characteristics and substance use among urban African American adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology 34(3-4): 205-218.

  • An analysis of an ethnically and geographically diverse sample found linear trends in participants' increased use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana and (a) perception of higher neighborhood disorder and (b) lower sense of hope.

    Wilson N, Syme SL, Boyce WT, Battistich VA, Selvin S. 2005. Adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use: The influence of neighborhood disorder and hope. American Journal of Health Promotion 20(1):11-19

  • In-depth interviews with prominent neighborhood individuals in four low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore City revealed that poor neighborhood economic and physical conditions—such as the lack of legitimate jobs in neighborhoods, the lack of role models due to the lack of productive and minority-owned businesses, vacant housing serving as a neighborhood location for illicit drug selling, and the lack of adequate street lighting—fostered violence and drug using/selling by adolescents.

    Yonas MA, O'Campo P, Burke JG, Gielen AC. 2007. Neighborhood-level factors and youth violence: Giving voice to the perceptions of prominent neighborhood individuals. Health Education & Behavior 34(4): 669-685

  • Neighborhood disadvantage increases youth violence and aggression through the criminogenic street milieu in extremely disadvantaged communities, which increases the chances of embeddedness in deviant peer relationships, easy access to firearms, witnessing street violence, personal experiences with violent victimization, expectations that future victimization could result in death.

    De Coster S, Heimer K, Wittrock SM Neighborhood disadvantage, social capital, street context, and youth violence. 2006. Sociological Quarterly 47(4): 723-753

  • Physical deterioration and breakdown of social order in the neighborhood increases the risk of early initiation of sexual activities for boys.

    Upchurch DM, Aneshensel CS, Sucoff CA, Levy-Storms L. 1999. Neighborhood and Family Contexts of Adolescent Sexual Activity. Journal of Marriage and Family 61(4): 920-933