The Significance of Duration Weighted Neighborhood Effects for Violent Behavior and Explanation of Ethnoracial Differences

• In Event: Communities and Place: Disadvantage, Education, and Race/Ethnicity

Abstract

Purpose: Two important issues constrain the neighborhood effects literature. First, most prior research examining neighborhood effects uses a point in time (i.e., cross-sectional) estimate of neighborhood disadvantage even though the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage varies between families. Second, neighborhood effects may be understated due to over-controlling for family socioeconomic conditions. Both limitations suggest that prior research may be underestimating neighborhood effects, with implications for explanation of ethnoracial differences.

Methods: The sample is drawn from the restricted use Future of Families and Child Well-being study. Data to measure youth’s exposure to neighborhood disadvantage is drawn from birth through age 9, with dependent variables measured at age 15. We estimate marginal structural models (MSM) with inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW.

Results: The results support hypotheses. The duration weighted measure of neighborhood disadvantage is more strongly associated with aggression and self-reported violence than the point in time, and that it accounts for a larger share of the ethnoracial differences.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that criminologists addressing neighborhood effects should attempt, when feasible, to document and model the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage. They are also consistent with and add to a growing literature addressing MSM modeling with IPTW weights.

Authors

• Paul Bellair, The Ohio State University

• Thomas L. McNulty, University of Georgia

• Daniel L. Carlson, University of Utah