Putting Families Into Place: Using Neighborhood‐Effects Research and Activity Spaces to Understand Families

Abstract

Neighborhood is an important context in which individuals and families are embedded. Yet family studies researchers have been relatively slow to incorporate spatial approaches into family science. Although limited theoretical and methodological attention has been devoted to families in neighborhood-effects research, family scholars can contribute greatly to theories about neighborhood effects, and neighborhood-effects research can help move the field of family studies forward. This article reviews the theories, applications, and limitations of research on neighborhood effects and discusses how family studies can benefit from incorporating a spatial perspective from neighborhood-effects research. I then present an innovative methodology—referred to as activity spaces—emerging in neighborhood-effects research, and I discuss how this approach can be used to better understand the complexity and heterogeneity of families. Last, I highlight ways to incorporate space into family studies by “putting families into place.”

Ethnic Socialization in Neighborhood Contexts: Implications for Ethnic Attitude and Identity Development Among Mexican‐Origin Adolescents

“…Two studies assessed parent ethnic or racial socialization and neighborhood ethnic or racial structuring, but one did not test their interactive effects (Stevenson & Arrington, 2009) and the other had a restricted range of ethnic concentration (Supple et al, 2006). Drawing from a broader set of literature, support was found across diverse samples for both the amplification and compensatory hypotheses Noah, 2015). Caughy et al's (2006) findings highlighted both amplification and compensatory effects regarding the association between racial socialization and cognitive, language, and behavioral outcomes across neighborhoods diverse on risk.…”

“…Two studies assessed parent ethnic or racial socialization and neighborhood ethnic or racial structuring, but one did not test their interactive effects (Stevenson & Arrington, ) and the other had a restricted range of ethnic concentration (Supple et al., ). Drawing from a broader set of literature, support was found across diverse samples for both the amplification and compensatory hypotheses (Leventhal et al., ; Noah, ). Caughy et al.…”

Family Inclusiveness and Spatial Dispersion: The Spatial Consequences of Having Large and Diversified Family Configurations

“…While many individuals have substantial leeway in developing and sustaining family relationships over distance, empirical evidence shows that family life continues to be strongly spatially and geographically embedded [32] [33] [34].…”

Stepfamily Processes and Youth Adjustment: The Role of Perceived Neighborhood Collective Efficacy

“…From an environmental–stress perspective, stepfamilies who perceive high‐quality relationships with neighbors might also worry less about the welfare of their children in the larger environment and ease control over the behavior of adolescent youth (Noah, ). This could result in more positive parenting and family processes, such as those exhibited by the residence‐centered and inclusive patterns.…”

“…Indeed, neighbors providing support to one another and engaging in the monitoring of youth behavior might help ease tension in couple and parent-child relationships by distributing, at least in part, the load of child-rearing and other responsibilities (Bowen et al, 2000(Bowen et al, , 2002Deng et al, 2006;O'Neal et al, 2018). From an environmental-stress perspective, stepfamilies who perceive high-quality relationships with neighbors might also worry less about the welfare of their children in the larger environment and ease control over the behavior of adolescent youth (Noah, 2015). This could result in more positive parenting and family processes, such as those exhibited by the residence-centered and inclusive patterns.…”