Community Disadvantage, Parental Network, and Commitment to Social Norms

Abstract

Objectives: Social disorganization theory implies that neighborhood disadvantage influences delinquency in part through the weakening of neighborhood-level social ties and residents' commitment to social norms. We test these associations by focusing on social ties among neighborhood parents and adolescent commitment to social norms. Methods: We use a population survey of adolescents and combine it with administrative (population) data on school neighborhood characteristics in Iceland. We use multilevel data on 83 school communities and 5,865 adolescents in Iceland to analyze our hypotheses. Results: We find partial support for our hypotheses. Thus, adolescents living in neighborhoods characterized by concentrated disadvantage are

Community income inequality and adolescent emotional problems: A population‐based study

“…In collaboration with the public schools and Statistics Iceland, we defined neighborhood communities as the collection of households officially assigned to each public school district according to their addresses, regardless of whether they contained a public school‐attending student. While household addresses are geographically assigned into public school district, our approach is, in effect, an institutional approach in creating neighborhood boundaries (Chaskin, ), made possible because public school attendance in Iceland is highly correlated with neighborhood community residency (Bernburg & Thorlindsson, ; Valdimarsdottir & Bernburg, ). All community‐level data were prepared by Statistics Iceland and delivered in aggregated form and therefore can not be traced back to individual households.…”

“…Moreover, a large part of Icelandic adolescents’ social life takes place within the neighborhood community, through sports and social clubs that tend to be embedded in the school district (Bernburg & Thorlindsson, ). Hence, we follow the methodology of prior research in Iceland that has defined neighborhood communities by anchoring them to the formal districts of public elementary schools (Bernburg et al., ,c; Thorlindsson, Valdimarsdottir, & Jonsson, ; Valdimarsdottir & Bernburg, ; Vilhjalmsdottir et al., ).…”

Experiences and Challenges Faced by Families Dealing With Delinquent Children in Botswana

“…The environment and neighbourhood have been identified by numerous researchers as risk factors contributing to child delinquency (Valdimarsdóttir & Bernburg, 2014;Omboto et al, 2013;Furr-Holden et al, 2011;Handley et al, 2015). Bocar, Mercado, Macahis and Serad (2012) confirm that community attitudes or certain behaviours, such as alcohol and drugs use by individuals in a certain neighbourhood, could contribute to child delinquency.…”

“…Consequently, they were not encouraging children to go to school. The environment and the neighbourhood have been cited by many researchers as factors that could contribute to child delinquency (Valdimarsdóttir & Bernburg, 2014;Omboto et al, 2013;Furr-Holden, Lee, Milam, Johnson, Lee & Ialongo, 2011;Handley, Rogosch, Guild & Cicchetti, 2015).…”

The segregated city

“…Assessing neighbourhood effects in the Icelandic context, Valdimarsdóttir and Bernburg (2015) use a population survey to determine the influence of neighbourhood-level social ties on crime and adherence to social norms. Their results indicate that "adolescents living in neighbourhoods characterized by concentrated disadvantage are more delinquent, net of individual-level (household) characteristics" (Valdimarsdóttir & Bernburg 2015). However, using a multilevel statistical analysis of educational neighbourhood effects in Helsinki, Kauppinen (2007) came to a different conclusion, indicating that "there [were] no neighbourhood effects on the probability that young people will complete secondary education in Helsinki" (Kauppinen 2007).…”