Empirical evidence suggests that an association between the built environment and physical activity exists. This evidence is mostly derived from cross-sectional studies that do not account for other causal explanations such as neighborhood self-selection. Experimental and quasi-experimental designs can be used to isolate the effect of the built environment on physical activity, but in their absence, statistical techniques that adjust for neighborhood self-selection can be used with cross-sectional data. Previous reviews examining the built environment-physical activity relationship have not differentiated among findings based on study design. To deal with self-selection, we synthesized evidence regarding the relationship between objective measures of the built environment and physical activity by including in our review: 1) cross-sectional studies that adjust for neighborhood self-selection and 2) quasi-experiments. In September 2010, we searched for English-language studies on built environments and physical activity from all available years in health, leisure, transportation, social sciences, and geographical databases. Twenty cross-sectional and 13 quasi-experimental studies published between 1996 and 2010 were included in the review. Most associations between the built environment and physical activity were in the expected direction or null. Land use mix, connectivity and population density and overall neighborhood design were however, important determinants of physical activity. The built environment was more likely to be associated with transportation walking compared with other types of physical activity including recreational walking. Three studies found an attenuation in associations between built environment characteristics and physical activity after accounting for neighborhood self-selection. More quasi-experiments that examine a broader range of environmental attributes in relation to context-specific physical activity and that measure changes in the built environment, neighborhood preferences and their effect on physical activity are needed.

/pdf/in-search-of-causality-a-systematic-review-of-the-obgqogctbe.pdf

In search of causality: a systematic review of the relationship between the built environment and physical activity among adults.

Hypotheses about the association of school organizational characteristics with school crime and disorder were tested in a nationally representative sample of 254 secondary schools. Relatively small intra-class correlations suggest that most of the variance in the individual measures of school disorder result from within-school rather than between-school variation. Therefore only a small portion of this variation is potentially explainable by between-school influences. Nevertheless, school climate explained a substantial percentage of the variance in all measures of school disorder, controlling for the effects of community characteristics and school student composition. Schools in which students perceived greater fairness and clarity of rules had less delinquent behavior and less student victimization. Rule fairness and clarity did not influence teacher victimization. Schools with more positive psychosocial climates had less teacher victimization, but climate did not influence student victimization or deli...

School Climate Predictors of School Disorder: Results from a National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools:

Neighborhoods and Crime: The Dimensions of Effective Community Control. Robert Bursik , Harold Grasmick

Socioeconomic status (SES) exposures during childhood are powerful predictors of adult cardiovascular morbidity, cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality, and mortality due to a range of specific causes. However, we still know little about when childhood SES exposures matter most, how long they need to last, what behavioral, psychological, or physiological pathways link the childhood SES experience to adult health, and which specific adult health outcomes are vulnerable to childhood SES exposures. Here, we discuss the evidence supporting the link between childhood and adolescent SES and adult health, and explore different environmental, behavioral, and physiological pathways that might explain how early SES would influence adult health. We also address the ages when SES exposures matter most for setting adult health trajectories as well as the role of exposure duration in SES influences on later health. While early childhood exposures seem to be potent predictors of a range of health outcomes, we emphasize that later childhood and adolescent exposures are risks for other health outcomes.

/pdf/childhood-socioeconomic-status-and-adult-health-m3w2q56mql.pdf

Childhood socioeconomic status and adult health

Although acknowledging the importance of adolescent friendships in the etiology of delinquency, prior studies have yet to provide a detailed examination of the role of actual friendship networks in delinquency. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1995–1996), this study’s incorporation of friendship networks allows for a more rigorous conceptualization and measurement of peer delinquency based on carefully defined networks of adolescent friendships. Findings illustrate that friendship networks are very heterogenous in terms of members’ participation in delinquent behavior with the majority of adolescents belonging to networks containing both delinquent and non-delinquent friends. In support of differential association’s premise that delinquent behavior is influenced by the ratio of definitions favorable to those unfavorable to law violation (Sutherland, 1947), the proportion of delinquent friends in a respondent’s network is most strongly associated with respondents’ subsequent delinquency. This relative measure of peer delinquency is preferable to a measure of the absolute level of delinquency occurring by friends, the average delinquency committed by friends, or the absolute number of delinquent friends. Enmeshment in a friendship network where consensus about the appropriateness of delinquency is maximized (i.e., all friends are delinquent or non-delinquent) most effectively constrains the behaviors of network members to resemble the groups’ behavior.

/pdf/friendship-networks-and-delinquency-the-relative-nature-of-4s349xmirg.pdf

Friendship Networks and Delinquency: The Relative Nature of Peer Delinquency

http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/assets/Uploads/20100629lightrailexercise.pdf

The effect of light rail transit on body mass index and physical activity

Drawing on school climate theory and social disorganization theory, this article examines the influence of major institutional and community factors on disorder in Philadelphia public schools. Using U.S. census data, school district data, and police data, the authors examined the following predictors of disorder in 43 middle schools: community poverty and residential stability, community crime, school size, and school stability. Community was conceptualized in two ways: local (the census tract around the school) and imported (aggregated measures from the census tracts in which students actually reside). Previous studies have failed to make this distinction when assessing community-level influences on school disorder. The authors used path analysis to examine direct and indirect relationships between community characteristics (poverty, residential stability, crime rates), school size, school stability (a factor score based on student attendance and turnover), and school disorder (a factor score based on sc...

A Macro-Level Model of School Disorder:

Using a national survey of U.S. residents this study examines racial, socioeconomic, and community explanations for the trust of local police. We hypothesize that the construct of social capital offers a nexus for explaining racial differences in attitudes toward the police. We measure social capital as a construct by aggregating together measures that assess the degree of trust and civic engagement in communities. The results indicate that depleted levels of perceived community social capital contribute to higher levels of distrust of local police. Social capital, however, partially mediates the relative distrust of Blacks toward the police. These findings suggest only partial support for a social capital explanation of Blacks’ distrust in the police. The implications of these findings for police reform efforts to mend minority relations in urban cities are discussed.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1078087405281707

Race, Social Capital, and Trust in the Police:

Research has long identified racial differences in perceptions of criminal injustice. Given that race is confounded with neighbourhood context, it remains unclear the extent to which individual or ...

Robert Stokes

Papers

The effect of light rail transit on body mass index and physical activity

A Macro-Level Model of School Disorder:

Race, Social Capital, and Trust in the Police:

Race, Neighbourhood Context and Perceptions of Injustice by the Police in Cincinnati:

Estimating the effects of light rail transit on health care costs.