Perceptions of Collective Efficacy Among Single Mothers: Insights for Conceptualization and Measurement

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (17) ◽  
pp. 4019-4040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Barnhart ◽  
Michael C. Gearhart ◽  
Kathryn Maguire-Jack
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Factor Structure ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Teen Pregnancy ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Single Mother ◽  
Informal Social Control ◽  
Family Outcomes ◽  
Study Results

Neighborhoods with higher levels of collective efficacy are associated with more favorable family outcomes such as lower teen pregnancy rates and less antisocial behavior among children. Collective efficacy is traditionally measured by combining the constructs of social cohesion and informal social control, yet these two constructs may have unique influences on family outcomes. While prior studies have examined collective efficacy’s factor structure, there is limited understanding of this construct among single-mother families, who have unique social and economic characteristics. In this exploratory study, we tested a single-factor model and two-factor model separating social cohesion and informal social control to examine the underlying factor structure of collective efficacy with a diverse sample of 2,084 unmarried mothers who participated in the third wave in-home survey of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study. Results support that informal social control and social cohesion were best modeled as two distinct, but related, constructs.

scholarly journals Measuring Collective Efficacy

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross L. Matsueda ◽  
Kevin M. Drakulich
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Measurement Model ◽  
Survey Response ◽  
Informal Social Control ◽  
Informal Control ◽  
Measurement Models ◽  
Level Model

This article specifies a multilevel measurement model for survey response when data are nested. The model includes a test–retest model of reliability, a confirmatory factor model of interitem reliability with item-specific bias effects, an individual-level model of the biasing effects due to respondent characteristics, and a neighborhood-level model of construct validity. We apply this model for measuring informal social control within collective efficacy theory. Estimating the model on 3,260 respondents nested within 123 Seattle neighborhoods, we find that measures of informal control show reasonable test–retest and interitem reliability. We find support for the hypothesis that respondents’ assessments of whether their neighbors would intervene in specific child deviant acts are related to whether they have observed such acts in the past, which is consistent with a cognitive model of survey response. Finally, we find that, when proper measurement models are not used, the effects of some neighborhood covariates on informal control are biased upward and the effect of informal social control on violence is biased downward.

Neighbourhood places, collective efficacy and crime: A longitudinal perspective

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110088
Author(s):  
Renee Zahnow ◽  
Jonathan Corcoran ◽  
Anthony Kimpton ◽  
Rebecca Wickes
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Land Use Classification ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Panel Models ◽  
Over Time

Neighbourhood places like shops, cafes and parks support a variety of social interactions ranging from the ephemeral to the intimate. Repeated interactions at neighbourhood places over time lay the foundation for the development of social cohesion and collective efficacy. In this study, we examine the proposition that changes in the presence or arrangement of neighbourhood places can destabilise social cohesion and collective efficacy, which has implications for crime. Using spatially integrated crime, social survey and parcel-level land-use classification data, we estimate mixed effects panel models predicting changes in theft and nuisance crimes across 147 Australian neighbourhoods. The findings are consistent with neighbourhood social control and crime opportunity theories. Neighbourhood development – indicated by fewer vacant properties and fewer industrial and agricultural sites – is associated with higher collective efficacy and less crime over time. Conversely, introducing more restaurants, transit stations and cinemas is associated with higher theft and nuisance over time regardless of neighbourhood collective efficacy. We argue that the addition of socially conducive places can leave neighbourhoods vulnerable to crime until new patterns of sociability emerge and collective efficacy develops.

scholarly journals Neighbourhood land use features, collective efficacy and local civic actions

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (11) ◽  
pp. 2372-2390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Corcoran ◽  
Renee Zahnow ◽  
Rebecca Wickes ◽  
John Hipp
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Informal Social Control ◽  
Land Uses ◽  
Civic Action ◽  
New Classification ◽  
Demographic Context

This paper explores the association between neighbourhood land use features and informal social control. More specifically, we examine the extent to which such features in combination with the socio-demographic context of the neighbourhood facilitate or impede collective efficacy and local civic actions. We achieve this through spatially integrating data from the census, topographic databases and a 2012 survey of 4132 residents from 148 neighbourhoods in Brisbane, Australia. The study creates a new classification of a neighbourhood’s physical environment by creating novel categories of land use features that depict social conduits, social holes and social wedges. Social conduits are features of the neighbourhood that facilitate interaction between individuals, social holes are land uses that create situations where there is no occupancy, and social wedges are features that carve up neighbourhoods. We find some evidence to suggest that residents’ reports of collective efficacy are higher in neighbourhoods with a greater density of social conduits. Density of social conduits is also positively associated with local civic action. However, in neighbourhoods with more greenspace, residents are less likely to engage in local civic actions.

scholarly journals Disagreement in Assessing Neighboring and Collective Efficacy: The Role of Social Distance

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237802311876953 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Hipp ◽  
Seth A. Williams ◽  
Adam Boessen
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Error ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Informal Social Control ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
General Measure ◽  
Racial Ethnic

Whereas existing research typically treats variability in residents’ reports of collective efficacy and neighboring as measurement error, the authors consider such variability as of substantive interest in itself. This variability may indicate disagreement among residents with implications for the neighborhood collectivity. The authors propose using a general measure of social distance based on several social dimensions (rather than measures based on a single dimension such as racial/ethnic heterogeneity or income inequality) to help understand this variability in assessments. The authors use data from wave I (2001) of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey ( n = 3,570) to aggregate respondents into egohoods of two different sizes: quarter-mile and half-mile radii. Consistent with expectations, neighborhoods with higher levels of general social distance have higher variability in reports of neighboring and the two components of collective efficacy, cohesion and informal social control.

Community Building

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon E. Milligan
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Informal Social Control ◽  
Community Resources

This article will cover the history, theory, and empirical and practical knowledge of community building. Social networks and social ties contribute to informal social control, while neighborhood behavior is key to the development and maintenance of social cohesion. The author will provide a discussion of the relationships among these elements and their relationships to other community resources, such as civic participation and collective action. The author will discuss the empirical work regarding the effective ways to produce and promote community building in poor neighborhoods, as well as the practical knowledge that suggest its importance.

scholarly journals Do neighborhood social processes moderate the etiology of youth conduct problems?

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (9) ◽  
pp. 1519-1529
Author(s):  
S. Alexandra Burt ◽  
D. Angus Clark ◽  
Amber L. Pearson ◽  
Kelly L. Klump ◽  
Jenae M. Neiderhiser
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Conduct Problems ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Informal Social Control ◽  
State University ◽  
Child Conduct Problems ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Moderation Model ◽  
Adolescent Twins

AbstractBackgroundPrior work has robustly suggested that social processes in the neighborhood (i.e. informal social control, social cohesion, norms) influence child conduct problems (CP) and related outcomes, but has yet to consider how these community-level influences interact with individual-level genetic risk for CP. The current study sought to do just this, evaluating neighborhood-level social processes as etiologic moderators of child CP for the first time.MethodsWe made use of two nested samples of child and adolescent twins within the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR): 5649 families who participated in in the Michigan Twins Project (MTP) and 1013 families who participated in the Twin Study of Behavioral and Emotional Development (TBED-C). The neighborhood social processes of informal social control, social cohesion, and norms were assessed using neighborhood sampling techniques, in which residents of each twin family's neighborhood reported on the social processes in their neighborhood. Standard biometric GxE analyses evaluated the extent to which they moderated the etiology of CP.ResultsThe ‘no moderation’ model provided the best fit to the data in nearly all cases, arguing against neighborhood social processes as etiologic moderators of youth CP.ConclusionsThe neighborhood social processes evaluated here do not appear to exert their effects on child CP via etiologic moderation. The documented links between neighborhood social processes and child CP are thus likely to reflect a different etiologic process. Possibilities include environmental main effects of neighborhood social processes on child CP, or genotype-environment correlations.

Measuring English language workplace proficiency across subgroups: Using CFA models to validate test score interpretation

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanwook Yoo ◽  
Venessa F. Manna
Keyword(s):  
Factor Structure ◽  
English Language ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
International Communication ◽  
Test Taker ◽  
Background Characteristics ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Score Interpretation ◽  
Study Results

This study assessed the factor structure of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC®) Listening and Reading test, and its invariance across subgroups of test-takers. The subgroups were defined by (a) gender, (b) age, (c) employment status, (d) time spent studying English, and (e) having lived in a country where English is the main language. The study results indicated that a correlated two-factor model corresponding to the two language abilities of listening and reading best accounted for the factor structure of the test. In addition, the underlying construct had the same structure across the test-taker subgroups studied. There were, however, significant differences in the means of the latent construct across the subgroups. This study provides empirical support for the current score reporting practice for the TOEIC test, suggests that the test scores have the same meaning across studied test-taker subgroups, and identifies possible test-taker background characteristics that affect English language abilities as measured by the TOEIC test.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document