NCJ Number
178980
Journal
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology Volume: 66 Issue: 5 Dated: October 1998 Pages: 825-831
Date Published
1998
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article examines the effects of neighborhood poverty on family stress and conflict, African American male adolescents’ self-worth and their propensity for violent behavior.
Abstract
Neighborhood poverty did not directly affect adolescents’ propensity for violent behavior but may have had an indirect effect through family stress and conflict and adolescents’ self-worth. Adolescents who had lived in their neighborhoods for more than 5 years were more susceptible to the potentially detrimental effects of neighborhood-level poverty and family stress and conflict. Future studies should assess the effects of changes in contextual factors, such as neighborhood poverty and family stress and conflict, on African American male adolescents’ psychosocial development and propensity for violent behavior so the temporal ordering and causal nature of those relationships can be better understood. Future studies should also examine the relative effects of neighborhood and family characteristics and other contextual factors (e.g., school and peer networks) at different developmental stages (childhood, preadolescence, adolescence and young adulthood). Tables, figure, references