Neighborhood collective efficacy as a moderator of the relationship between neighborhood and school racial/ethnic discrimination

• In Event: 3-174 - The Role of Neighborhood Context in Shaping Diverse Youth Development

Integrative Statement

Previous research suggests students’ perceptions of school discrimination are informed by interactions with peers and adults in the school context (Benner & Graham, 2011, 2013; Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000). However, little literature examines the role of the neighborhood context in informing students’ perceptions of unfair treatment in the school context. Previous research suggests that residing in communities high in collective efficacy, or with strong social ties, can be protective against unfair treatment (Witherspoon & Hughes, 2014). While few studies address how neighborhoods influence students’ perceptions in the school context, it is imperative and timely to examine the neighborhood-school spill over.

The current study takes an integrative perspective (Garcia Coll et al., 1996) to examine how (1) neighborhood racial/ethnic discrimination (by police and store clerks) affects students’ perceptions of school-based peer and adult racial/ethnic discrimination and (2) how neighborhood collective efficacy may moderate this relationship. Data for this study come from a larger, ongoing longitudinal study. The subsample of 1,701 tenth graders (55% female; 10% Multiethnic, 11% Black, 23% White, 24% Asian, and 32% Latina/o) was drawn from over 147 high schools in northern and southern California and over 500 neighborhoods, varying in ethnic diversity. Students responded to a three-item measure where they were asked how often they were treated unfairly or suspiciously in their neighborhood (i.e., by police) because of their ethnic group (1=never, 5=a whole lot) ( = .77). To examine neighborhood collective efficacy, students responded to an 11-item measure where they were asked how strongly they agreed with statements such as the following about their community (i.e., this is a close-knit neighborhood) (1= definitely disagree, 5 = strongly agree) ( = .88).

Using White and male students as our reference group, we ran one cross-classified multilevel model for adult and another for peer racial/ethnic discrimination. Figure 1 shows three significant two-way interactions predicting school adult racial/ethnic discrimination between race/ethnicity and neighborhood discrimination for Black ( = .08, p < .05), Latina/o ( = .09, p < .01), and Multiethnic ( = .18, p < .001) students. Students perceived more unfair treatment by adults at school when they reported adult authority figures in their community treated them unfairly because of their racial/ ethnic background. Figure 2 shows a significant three-way interaction for peer racial/ethnic discrimination between race/ethnicity, neighborhood discrimination, and neighborhood collective efficacy ( = .10, p < .05). Findings show the expected pattern for White students; that is, in neighborhoods high in unfair treatment, having residents “who have your back” is protective against school peer racial/ethnic discrimination. In neighborhoods with lower reports of racial/ethnic discrimination by authority figures, collective efficacy seemed to be protective for Asian-American students. However, in neighborhoods with high reports of racial/ethnic discrimination by authority figures, living in efficacious neighborhoods was not protective in the same way that it was for White students.

Future analyses will probe whether there are other neighborhood characteristics, such as the representation of one’s own ethnic group, that may mitigate the amount of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination experienced at school.  

Authors

• Feliz Quiñones, University of California, Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Sandra Graham, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author