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Identifying Perceived Neighborhood Stressors Across Diverse Communities in New York City

  • Original Article
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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

There is growing interest in the role of psychosocial stress in health disparities. Identifying which social stressors are most important to community residents is critical for accurately incorporating stressor exposures into health research. Using a community-academic partnered approach, we designed a multi-community study across the five boroughs of New York City to characterize resident perceptions of key neighborhood stressors. We conducted 14 community focus groups; two to three in each borough, with one adolescent group and one Spanish-speaking group per borough. We then used systematic content analysis and participant ranking data to describe prominent neighborhood stressors and identify dominant themes. Three inter-related themes regarding the social and structural sources of stressful experiences were most commonly identified across neighborhoods: (1) physical disorder and perceived neglect, (2) harassment by police and perceived safety and (3) gentrification and racial discrimination. Our findings suggest that multiple sources of distress, including social, political, physical and economic factors, should be considered when investigating health effects of community stressor exposures and psychological distress. Community expertise is essential for comprehensively characterizing the range of neighborhood stressors that may be implicated in psychosocial exposure pathways.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, 100 Technology Drive, Suite 350, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219, USA

    Jessie L. C. Shmool, Lauren G. Chubb & Jane E. Clougherty

  2. The Pittsburgh Foundation, Five PPG Place, Suite 250, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222, USA

    Michael A. Yonas

  3. WE ACT for Environmental Justice (West Harlem Environmental Action Coalition, Inc.), 1854 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY, 10031, USA

    Ogonnaya Dotson Newman, Evelyn Joseph, Ana Parks, Charles Callaway & Peggy Shepard

  4. Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Laura D. Kubzansky

Authors
  1. Jessie L. C. Shmool
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  2. Michael A. Yonas
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  3. Ogonnaya Dotson Newman
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  4. Laura D. Kubzansky
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  5. Evelyn Joseph
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  6. Ana Parks
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  8. Lauren G. Chubb
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  9. Peggy Shepard
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  10. Jane E. Clougherty
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Correspondence to Jessie L. C. Shmool.

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This work was supported by US EPA Grant #RD-83457601-0.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Shmool, J.L.C., Yonas, M.A., Newman, O.D. et al. Identifying Perceived Neighborhood Stressors Across Diverse Communities in New York City. Am J Community Psychol 56, 145–155 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-015-9736-9

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