Abstract
Research has found that neighborhood structural characteristics can influence residents’ mental health. Few studies, however, have explored the proximal reasons behind such influences. This study investigates how different types of communities, in terms of environmental stressors (social and physical disorder and fear of crime) and social resources (informal ties and formal organizational participation), affect well-being, depression, and anxiety in adult residents. Data are from a survey of 412 residents nested in 50 street blocks. Block stressors and resources were cluster analyzed to identify six block types. After controlling for several individual- and block-level characteristics, results from multilevel models suggest that in communities facing relatively few stressors, higher levels of formal participation are associated with better mental health. Because high levels of formal participation were not found in communities with higher levels of stressors, the impact of participation in such contexts could not be examined. However, results suggest that in communities where stressors are more common, isolation from neighbors may have a protective effect on mental health.
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Notes
Two studies using cluster analysis helped to determine the number of clusters. Both were conducted within the boundaries of a single city, like the present study. The first one sampled only poor, urban neighborhoods and used six variables to perform a cluster analysis, including safety concerns and neighborliness, along with four other structural characteristics (Gorman-Smith et al., 2000). The authors found three neighborhood types that significantly affected adolescent outcomes. The second study included a more complete neighborhood range, and cluster analysis was performed with two sets of variables representing SES and race/ethnic composition (Aneshensel & Sucoff, 1996). The authors found eight different neighborhood clusters that significantly influenced adolescent mental health. Given that in the present study, the sampling is not limited to poor, urban neighborhoods but rather is spread throughout the whole city, a number of groups above three and around eight are expected to be found. Looking at the dendrograms issued from Ward’s method of hierarchical cluster analysis performed on the total sample and in the two random split-halves, it was found that within the range of possibilities defined above, a six-cluster solution was our best option (this solution was suggested in dendrograms issued from the total sample as well as from both random split-halves).
Proportions of whites and of unemployment are not included because they were not found to be significantly related to well-being or anxiety in preliminary multilevel analyses. It is relevant to note, however, that we checked that the results did not change in substance when adding those two variables in the models. Also, because results in Table 1 suggested that blocks explained part of the variance found in individual stress and support, we also checked the impact of adding those two covariates at the block level. Again, the conclusions were not substantially affected.
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Acknowledgements
This research is based on data collected as part of NIMH Grant 1-R01-MH40842-01 and −02 from the Center for Violent and Antisocial Behavior, Ralph B. Taylor, Principal Investigator, Douglas D. Perkins, Project Director. The first author was supported by scholarships from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Fonds de Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ) and Quebec’s Ministry of Education (MEQ). The authors wish to thank Eric Dion and anonymous reviewers for comments on previous drafts.
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Dupéré, V., Perkins, D.D. Community types and mental health: a multilevel study of local environmental stress and coping. Am J Community Psychol 39, 107–119 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9099-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9099-y