Built Environment and its Effects on Social Cohesion and Adolescent Alcohol Use

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Sociability and Collective Efficacy

Abstract

For almost a century, the Chicago School and its followers have focused on neighborhoods and their effects on various outcomes, including deviance. Starting with Shaw and McKay (1969), there has been a substantial focus on the social capital and control that takes place within neighborhoods. The current paper focuses on how this neighborhood social cohesion and control is built. It examines how the physical built environment, such as street connectivity and population density, as well as the local institutions within an area affect how individuals interact. It then goes on to examine whether this social control then affects whether adolescents drink alcohol. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, the findings suggest that parks, highly connected streets, and dense populations all lower adolescent alcohol use. Of particular interest are results showing that higher levels of social cohesion impede the positive effect that these institutions have on adolescent alcohol use. These findings support previous research that suggests that tight-knit areas potentially lack the ability to control their community (Browning, Feinberg, and Dietz 2004; Pattillo 1998).​

Authors

• Andrea Garber Krieg, Bowling Green State University

• Jessica Ann Ziegler, Bowling Green State University