Neighborhood Social Disorganization, Families, and the Educational Behavior of Adolescents

Abstract

Using data on 1,757 middle and high school students from a nationally representative sample, relationships among youth perceptions of neighborhood characteristics, parenting processes, and their own school behavior, attendance, and grades were tested using structural equation modeling. A model with direct neighborhood effects on selfreported educational behavior as well as indirect effects mediated through perceptions of supportive parenting and parental educational support fit the data well in calibration and validation samples. Perceived neighborhood social disorganization exerted a larger effect than did family processes on self-reported educational behavior. The importance of including measures of neighborhood environment in future research on educational outcomes is discussed in the context of their substantial contribution in the present investigation.