Previous research has linked neighborhood characteristics and obesity trends. In particular, lack of access to affordable, healthy food is seen as contributing to poor dietary habits and low levels of physical activity. At the household level, food choices are often shaped by time constraints where working families use fast food to cope with low pay and long, inflexible work schedules, and as a...

OBJECTIVES To determine the effects of neighborhood levels of poverty, household crowding, and acculturation on the rate of injury to Hispanic and non-Hispanic white children. SETTING Orange County, California. METHODS An ecologic study design was used with census block groups as the unit of analysis. Measures of neighborhood poverty, household crowding, and acculturation were specific to e...

BACKGROUND According to recent research studies, the built and socioeconomic contexts of neighborhoods are associated with African American adolescents' participation in physical activity and obesity status. However, few research efforts have been devoted to understand how African American adolescents' perceptions of their neighborhood environments may affect physical activity behaviors and obe...

One of SIAP's goals has been to explore the dimensions of cultural participation and, in particular, the social context of participation. In a 1994 working paper, Stern used the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) specially commissioned in 1992 for the Philadelphia metropolitan area to which he added information on the number of cultural organizations located in the zip code of ea...

This study examines how the neighborhood environments experienced over multiple generations of a family influence parents’ educational expectations and aspirations, children’s cognitive skills, and children’s health. Building on recent research showing strong continuity in neighborhood environments across generations of family members, we argue for a revised perspective on “neighborhood effects...

As it is commonly understood, Urban neighborhoods play a significant role in developing urbansustainability as the smallest unit of city so that the formation and promotion of neighborhood identity, and focusingon social relationships would be in harmony with urban sustainability. It is believed that a dramatic change in spatialstructure of urban neighborhood include a decline in levels of poli...

In social epidemiology, an individual's neighborhood is considered to be an important determinant of health behaviors, mediators, and outcomes. Consequently, when investigating health disparities, researchers may wish to adjust for confounding by unmeasured neighborhood factors, such as local availability of health facilities or cultural predispositions. With a simple random sample and a binary...

This policy brief—a product of the SIAP Culture and Community Revitalization Collection, in collaboration with Reinvestment Fund---uses existing research on urban culture and community arts to make a case for culture-based neighborhood revitalization. The brief defines and illustrates "natural" cultural districts, highlights the synergy of social diversity and cultural engagement, and draws les...