Exploring Neighborhood Effects on Health and Life Satisfaction: Disentangling Neighborhood Racial Density and Neighborhood Income
- Amanda L. Roy,
- Diane Hughes,
- Hirokazu Yoshikawa
- … show all 3 hide
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Abstract
This study examines the independent and synergistic influences of neighborhood racial density and neighborhood income on several indicators of health status and life satisfaction in a sample of 311 adult African Americans living in New York City. This is made possible by the two-stage sampling procedure that was used in the collection of the data, ensuring that respondents’ neighborhoods vary on both racial density and income. Findings from a series of OLS regression models that adjust standard errors to account for the non-independence of observations demonstrate that neighborhood income moderates the relationship between racial density and health and life satisfaction. When neighborhood income is low, high neighborhood racial density is detrimental for health and life satisfaction. However, when neighborhood income is high, neighborhood racial density is protective for health and life satisfaction. These results indicate that the role of neighborhood income needs to be considered when examining the relationship between neighborhood racial density, health, and life satisfaction. Moreover, these findings may provide insight for understanding the past conflicting results.
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About this Article
- Title
- Exploring Neighborhood Effects on Health and Life Satisfaction: Disentangling Neighborhood Racial Density and Neighborhood Income
- Journal
-
Race and Social Problems
Volume 4, Issue 3-4 , pp 193-204 - Cover Date
- 2012-12-01
- DOI
- 10.1007/s12552-012-9079-1
- Print ISSN
- 1867-1748
- Online ISSN
- 1867-1756
- Publisher
- Springer US
- Additional Links
- Topics
- Keywords
-
- Neighborhood racial density
- Neighborhood income
- Health
- Life satisfaction
- Authors
-
-
Amanda L. Roy
(1)
- Diane Hughes (2)
- Hirokazu Yoshikawa (3)
-
Amanda L. Roy
- Author Affiliations
-
- 1. Department of Applied Psychology, Steinhardt School of Education, Culture, and Human Development, New York University, 627 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY, 10003, USA
- 2. Department of Applied Psychology, Steinhardt School of Education, Culture, and Human Development, New York University, 246 Greene Street, New York, NY, 10003, USA
- 3. Harvard School of Education, 13 Appian Way, Longfellow 101, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA