Showing papers on "Collective efficacy published in 2006"

Civic Engagement From a Communication Infrastructure Perspective

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to articulate the concepts and assumptions of communication infrastructure theory (CIT) in its present stage of development and validation. As an ecological approach to communication and community, CIT claims that access to storytelling community resources is a critical factor in civic engagement. When embedded in a neighborhood environment where key community storytellers encourage each other to talk about the neighborhood, individual residents are more likely to belong to their community, to have a strong sense of collective efficacy, and to participate in civic actions. CIT framework offers a way to examine the ecological processes that concern the effects of communication resources on civic community.

Predicting Intention to Save Water: Theory of Planned Behavior, Response Efficacy, Vulnerability, and Perceived Efficiency of Alternative Solutions

Abstract: These 2 studies attempted to predict people's intention to save water. Study 1 used a model based on Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) and other variables: vulnerability, 2 collective efficacy variables, and subjective effectiveness of alternative solutions (SEAS) to ease drought impact. Study 2 tested a model similar to that of Study 1, but with 2 personal efficacy variables added. Respondents in both studies were residents of Taiwan (Ns= 166 and 210). Analysis indicated that the modified models (R2>.32) were better than the TPB model (R2<.19), and SEAS and response efficacy had crucial effects on people's intentions to retrofit. The studies also found some significant but inconsistent effects of income, dwelling, and education.

Relationships between cohesion, collective efficacy and performance in professional basketball teams: An examination of mediating effects

Abstract: The main aim of this study was to examine mediating effects in the relationships between cohesion, collective efficacy and performance in professional basketball teams. A secondary aim was to examine the correlates of collective efficacy in a professional sport. A total of 154 French and foreign professional players completed French or English versions of questionnaires about cohesion and collective efficacy. Two composite measures of individual performance were used (pre- and post-performance). Individual-level analyses were performed. Regression analyses supported two mediating relationships with collective efficacy as a mediator of the pre-performance – Group integration-task relationship, and Group integration-task as a mediator of the pre-performance – collective efficacy relationship. Statistical analyses indicated that neither Group integration-task nor collective efficacy was a better mediator in the relationship between pre-performance and the other group variables. Results also revealed...

Community Storytelling Network, Neighborhood Context, and Civic Engagement: A Multilevel Approach

Abstract: From a communication infrastructure theory perspective, the current study examined individuals' civic engagement (neighborhood belonging, collective efficacy, and civic participation) as influenced by 2 multilevel components of the communication infrastructure-an integrated connectedness to a storytelling network (ICSN) and the residential context-focusing on ethnic heterogeneity and residential stability. Our multilevel analyses show that ICSN is the most important individual-level factor in civic engagement-neighborhood belonging, collective efficacy, and civic participation-after controlling for other individual-level and neighborhood-level factors. In both ethnically homogeneous and heterogeneous areas and in both stable and unstable areas, ICSN is an important factor in civic engagement. As contextual factors, residential stability positively affects neighborhood belonging and collective efficacy, and ethnic heterogeneity is negatively related to collective efficacy. Our data do not show any direct contextual effects of residential stability or ethnic heterogeneity on civic participation. However, our HLM analysis showed that the relative importance of ICSN for the likelihood of participation in civic activities is significantly higher in unstable or ethnically heterogeneous areas than in stable or ethnically homogeneous areas.

The Influence of School Social Composition on Teachers' Collective Efficacy Beliefs.

Abstract: Purpose:The purpose of this study was to determine how school social composition is related to perceived collective efficacy. Several hypotheses tested in this research were derived from social cognitive theory and based on the extant literature.Participants:Data were drawn from 1,981 teachers in 41 K-8 schools in a diverse urban school district in the southwestern United States.Findings:The results of two-level hierarchical linear models indicated that a school’s past academic achievement, rate of special program placement for gifted children, and faculty ethnic composition explained 46% of the variation among schools in perceived collective efficacy. The article also reports a much smaller but statistically significant relationship between collective efficacy beliefs and teacher race and experience. Teachers of color and those with more than 10 years experience reported slightly higher levels of perceived collective efficacy.Conclusions:The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and prac...

Neighborhood safety, collective efficacy, and obesity in women with young children.

Abstract: Objective: To test the hypothesis that mothers of young children would have a higher prevalence of obesity if they lived in neighborhoods that they perceived as unsafe or as having a low level of collective efficacy. Research Methods and Procedures: Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a cross-sectional analysis was conducted of 2445 women living in 20 large (population ≥ 200, 000) U.S. cities. BMI was measured on 72% and self-reported on 28%. Perception of neighborhood safety was assessed with the Neighborhood Environment for Children Rating Scales. The collective efficacy measure was adapted from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Results: Thirty percent of the women were married, 38% lived below the U.S. poverty threshold, and 66% reported no education beyond high school. Approximately one-half of the women were non-Hispanic black, and one-fourth were Hispanic (any race). After adjustment for sociodemographic factors (household income, education, race/ethnicity, age, and marital status), smoking, depression, and television time, the prevalence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) increased across tertiles of neighborhood safety from safest to least safe (37% vs. 41% vs. 46%, p = 0.004) but did not differ across tertiles of collective efficacy from highest to lowest (41% vs. 40% vs. 42%, p = 0.67). Discussion: In a national sample of women with young children, obesity was more prevalent among those who perceived their neighborhoods to be unsafe.

Navigating Dangerous Streets: The Sources and Consequences of Street Efficacy:

Abstract: The concept of street efficacy, defined as the perceived ability to avoid violent confrontations and to be safe in one's neighborhood, is proposed as a mechanism connecting aspects of adolescents'“imposed” environments to the choices they make in creating their own “selected” environments that minimize the potential for violent confrontations. Empirical models using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods suggest that street efficacy is substantially influenced by various aspects of the social context surrounding adolescents. Adolescents who live in neighborhoods with concentrated disadvantage and low collective efficacy, respectively, are found to have less confidence in their ability to avoid violence after controlling for an extensive set of individual- and family-level factors. Exposure to violence also reduces street efficacy, although it does not explain the association between collective efficacy and individual street efficacy. Adolescents' confidence in their ability to...

Social capital, family violence, and neglect

Abstract: BACKGROUND. Social capital includes collective efficacy, psychological sense of community, neighborhood cohesion, and parental investment in the child. It has been shown to be associated with a variety of health and welfare outcomes and may be useful in understanding and preventing parenting behaviors on the continuum of child abuse and neglect. OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this research was to evaluate low social capital as a risk factor for harsh physical punishment, neglectful parenting, psychologically harsh parenting, and domestic violence. METHODS. This study is an analysis of cross-sectional telephone survey data of mothers in North and South Carolina (n = 1435). We constructed a 4-point social capital index reflecting survey responses to items ascertaining neighborhood characteristics, willingness to take personal action, the presence of 2 adults in the household, and regular religious service participation. We assessed the relationship of social capital to inventories of self-reported parenting behaviors and in-home violence. RESULTS. In adjusted analysis, we found that each 1 point increase in a 4-point social capital index was associated with a 30% reduction in the odds of neglectful parenting, psychologically harsh parenting, and domestic violence. There was no relationship between social capital and harsh physical punishment. CONCLUSIONS. This study demonstrates that increasing social capital decreases the odds of neglectful parenting, psychologically harsh parenting, and domestic violence but not harsh physical punishment. This supports further investigation into developing social capital as a resource for families.

Collective Efficacy and Major Depression in Urban Neighborhoods

Abstract: Depression contributes substantially to the global burden of disease and disability Population-level factors that shape depression may be efficient targets for intervention to decrease the depression burden The authors aimed to identify the relation between neighborhood collective efficacy and major depression Analyses were conducted on data from the New York Social Environment Study (n = 4,000), a representative study of residents of New York, New York, conducted in 2005 Neighborhood collective efficacy was measured as the average neighborhood response on a well-established scale Major depression was assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire A marginal modeling approach was applied to present results on the additive scale relevant to public health and intervention Analyses were adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, recent life events that could contribute to both depression and change in residence, and individual perception of collective efficacy Collective efficacy was related to major depression among older adults; marginal models estimated a 62% (95% confidence interval: 01, 175) lower prevalence of depression if all older adults (65 years and older) had lived in high versus low collective efficacy neighborhoods Similar results were suggested among younger adults; however, the confidence interval crossed the null These and other study findings suggest that community-randomized trials targeting collective efficacy merit consideration

The Relationships of Perceived Motivational Climate to Cohesion and Collective Efficacy in Elite Female Teams

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of perceived motivational climate to cohesion and collective efficacy in elite female teams. A total of 124 basketball and handball athletes completed two season measures (T1, T2). Relationships were examined at an individual level both statically and across time. Canonical correlations revealed that a combination of high perceptions of an ego-involving but low perceptions of a task-involving climate were associated with low perceptions of task cohesion at Time 1. High perceptions of a task-involving but low perceptions of an ego-involving climate were associated with higher perceptions of task cohesion and collective efficacy at Time 2. Moreover, low perceptions of an ego-involving and moderately low perceptions of a task-involving climate were associated with high perceptions of social cohesion at Time 2. Regression analyses including autoregressive influence indicated that a task-involving climate positively predicted variance in T2 group integ...

Neighborhood Residents' Production of Order: The Effects of Collective Efficacy on Responses to Neighborhood Problems:

Abstract: Community policing agencies seek to engage communities to build working partnerships, solicit the input of neighborhood residents, and stimulate informal control of crime. A common barrier to these efforts is a lack of citizen participation. The purpose of this article is to assess the relationship between neighborhood-level variables and citizen response to neighborhood problems. The authors'predictions are guided by recent research on collective efficacy and the relationship between neighborhood conditions and citizen actions. Accordingly, the authors expect neighborhood variables will affect residents'responses to perceived problems. Results show that residential-unit variables do not have significant effects on the likelihood that residents respond to neighborhood problems they identified. Methodological limitations must be overcome before it can be concluded that collective efficacy is not predictive of citizen responses to neighborhood problems, but research must consider this important outcome vari...

The Explanation of Crime: How does community context matter? Social mechanisms and the explanation of crime rates

Abstract: The idea of “community” is at once compelling and frustrating. Indeed, few would disagree that at some fundamental level a community's social context matters for crime. Yet the concept is sufficiently vague that it risks becoming meaningless – if community context is all things to all people then it is simply a metaphor with no real explanatory power. What is a community? Neighborhood? Even if we can agree on the unit of analysis, what exactly about the community is doing the explaining? Do communities act? What is the mechanism at work? In this chapter I shall attempt to make some explanatory progress by setting out a conceptual framework for thinking about community social context and crime. In its pure form my claim is not only that communities matter but also that we need not have to explain individual criminal behavior. Multi-level integration is all the rage these days, but to demonstrate a causal effect of community does not necessarily require individuals as units of analysis. As I shall elaborate, a theory of crime rates, especially one that aims to explain how neighborhoods fare as units of social control over their own public spaces in the here and now, is logically not the same theoretical enterprise as explaining how neighborhoods exert long-term or developmental effects that ultimately translate into individual crime (Wikstrom & Sampson, 2003). Both sets of mechanisms may be at work, but one does not compel the other.

Canadian perspectives on beginning principals: their role in building capacity for learning communities

Abstract: Purpose – This paper sets out to posit that the new economy places a new set of demands on schools and those who lead. Mindfulness, intentional engagement of people and adaptive confidence are needed developmental features of beginning principal success. The paper examines how beginning principals in Canada respond to the capacity‐building work of leading learning communities.Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines data from a number of Canadian studies of beginning principalship and makes sense of these data using learning community and leadership literature.Findings – Beginning principals must create a learning community culture that sustains and develops trust, collaboration, risk taking, reflection, shared leadership, and data‐based decision making. Mindfulness, engaging people in capacity building and the development of adaptive confidence are key features of new principal maturation.Originality/value – Beginning principals need to first develop personal, then collective efficacy, as well as...

What's the 'hood got to do with it? Parental perceptions about how neighborhood mechanisms affect their children

Abstract: :During the past decade, a rapidly expanding body of empirical research has emerged that statistically links disadvantaged neighborhood environments with social and economic outcomes of low-income, minority children. Nonetheless, the mechanisms by which neighborhoods putatively affect children remain poorly understood. This article examines the perceptions of low-income parents regarding how their neighborhood might affect their children. We examine quantitative and qualitative data gathered from phone interviews with 246 parents who live in subsidized housing scattered across a wide variety of neighborhoods in Denver, Colorado. We supplement this information with data obtained through a series of focus group interviews with a subset of these parents. Our findings indicate that low-income parents perceive the following primary neighborhood mechanisms: (1) the degree (or lack) of social norms and collective efficacy (24%); (2) influence of children’s peers (12%); (3) exposure to crime and violence ...

Differential social organization, collective action, and crime

Abstract: This article elaborates and extends Sutherland’s [Principles of criminology (4th ed.), Lippincott, Philadelphia, Sutherland (1947)] concept of differential social organization, the sociological counterpart to his social psychological theory of differential association. Differential social organization contains a static structural component, which explains crime rates across groups, as well as a dynamic collective action component, which explains changes in crime rates over time. I argue that by drawing on George Herbert Mead’s [Mind, self, and society. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Mead (1934)] theories of symbolic interaction and social control, we can conceptualize organization in favor of, and against, crime as collective behavior. We can then integrate theoretical mechanisms of models of collective behavior, including social network ties, collective action frames, and threshold models of collective action. I illustrate the integrated theory using examples of social movements against crime, neighborhood collective efficacy, and the code of the street.

Citizen participation in neighborhood organizations in poor communities and its relationship to neighborhood and organizational collective efficacy

Abstract: Collective efficacy describes residents' perceptions regarding their ability to work with their neighbors to intervene in neighborhood issues to maintain social control and solve problems. This study examines whether citizen participation in neighborhood organizations located in poor communities is related to neighborhood and organizational collective efficacy among residents. The results indicate that the more residents participated in their neighborhood organization, the greater their level of organizational collective efficacy, but not neighborhood collective efficacy. The results of the current study will help support social workers and other community practitioners understand how to effectively facilitate citizen participation in ways that enhance collective efficacy in poor communities. Implications for social work practice and research are discussed. Keywords: neighborhood collective efficacy, organizational collective efficacy, citizen participation, neighborhood organizations, poor communities, community practice, community level research ********** In recent years, there has been a revitalization of community-based social work strategies that seek to enhance citizen participation and build the capacity of residents to address problems in poor communities (Johnson, 1998; Schott, 1997; Weft, 1996). These strategies have been used to confront a variety of issues, including those that pertain to at-risk youth, unemployment, affordable housing, crime and safety, and urban blight (Chaskin, Brown, Venkatesh & Vidal, 2001; Murphy & Cunningham, 2003). Citizen participation is the active, voluntary involvement of individuals and groups to change problematic conditions in poor communities, and influence the policies and programs that affect the quality of their lives or the lives of other residents (Gamble & Weil, 1995). Citizen participation has enhanced the effectiveness of community-based social work strategies by strengthening resident participation in democratic processes, assisting groups in advocating for their needs, and building organizational and community problem-solving resources and capacities (Chaskin, et al., 2001; Johnson, 1998; Schorr, 1997; Weil, 1996). Despite the potential of citizen participation, the barriers to facilitating it can be substantial, including the multiple demands on an individual's time. Wandersman and Florin (2001) argue that a major resource of small voluntary organizations, such as neighborhood organizations, is the participation of its members, including their time and energy which must be mobilized into active involvement and performance of tasks. Therefore, it is important that residents believe they have the capacity to make a difference. Collective efficacy is a term used to describe residents' perceptions regarding their ability to work with their neighbors to intervene in neighborhood issues to maintain social control and solve problems (Wandersman & Florin, 2000). Collective efficacy is a broad term and can be conceptualized as both a neighborhood and organizational process. Neighborhood collective efficacy is defined as the connection of mutual trust and social cohesion along with shared expectations for intervening in support of neighborhood social control (Sampson & Raudenbush, 1999). Organizational collective efficacy is defined as an organization or group's perception of its problem-solving skills and its ability to improve the lives its members (Pecukonis & Wenocur, 1994). While there is considerable research demonstrating the positive effects of neighborhood collective efficacy on neighborhood conditions, including crime and safety (Sampson, Morenoff & Gannon-Rowley, 2002; Sampson & Groves, 1989; Rankin & Quane, 2002), less is know about the connection between citizen participation and neighborhood and organizational collective efficacy (Chavis, Florin, Rich & Wandersman, 1987; Perkins, Brown & Taylor, 1996; Sampson & Raudenbush, 1997). …

Adolescent health brief Lifetime Community Violence Exposure and Health Risk Behavior among Young Adults in College

Abstract: Among the undergraduates in this study, lifetime community violence exposure was associated with greater lifetime substance use and sexual risk-taking, and greater 30-day substance use and risky driving practices. Findings were independent of gender, ethnic minority status, personality charac- teristics, aggression, family socioeconomic status, family support, and neighborhood collective efficacy. © 2006 Society for Adolescent Medicine. All rights reserved.

The urban environment and sexual risk behavior among men who have sex with men.

Abstract: Increasingly, studies show that characteristics of the urban environment influence a wide variety of health behaviors and disease outcomes, yet few studies have focused on the sexual risk behaviors of men who have sex with men (MSM). This focus is important as many gay men reside in or move to urban areas, and sexual risk behaviors and associated outcomes have increased among some urban MSM in recent years. As interventions aimed at changing individual-level risk behaviors have shown mainly short-term effects, consideration of broader environmental influences is needed. Previous efforts to assess the influence of environmental characteristics on sexual behaviors and related health outcomes among the general population have generally applied three theories as explanatory models: physical disorder, social disorganization and social norms theories. In these models, the intervening mechanisms specified to link environmental characteristics to individual-level outcomes include stress, collective efficacy, and social influence processes, respectively. Whether these models can be empirically supported in generating inferences about the sexual behavior of urban MSM is underdeveloped. Conceptualizing sexual risk among MSM to include social and physical environmental characteristics provides a basis for generating novel and holistic disease prevention and health promotion interventions.

Leadership Capacity and Collective Efficacy: Interacting to Sustain Student Learning in a Professional Learning Community:

Abstract: This article explores a reciprocal relationship between leadership capacity and collective efficacy in a pre-K–8 school in the Southern United States that continually advances as a professional lea...

Teachers' sense of collective efficacy: an international view

Abstract: Purpose – This study explores the notion of collective teacher efficacy, a characteristic of schools that has emerged as a significant factor in school productivity. More specifically, this paper examines the construct validity and reliability of the Israeli Collective Teacher Efficacy Scale and explores variables that may influence teachers' sense of collective efficacy.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of teacher respondents from 66 elementary schools (876 teachers) in Israel's central school district was used.Findings – A comparison of the English (USA) version and the Hebrew (Israel) version of the Collective Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale revealed marked similarities, supporting the constitutive meaning of this construct and the construct validity of its subscales. In the Israeli sample, urban school teachers tended to have a higher sense of collective efficacy than suburban school teachers. Teachers' collective sense of efficacy was unrelated to the demographic variables examined, including th...

Classifying Neighbourhoods for Reassurance Policing

Abstract: High rates of reported crime and levels of fear of crime have emerged as characteristics of late modern societies. Changes in society as a result of globalization and new technologies are said to have contributed to a “risk society” in which crime is one of a number of risks that the public expect will be managed effectively. The perception that the risk of victimization is growing undermines confidence in the effectiveness of the state. The reassurance/perception gap has thus long concerned central government. However, geographical variations in this trend are poorly understood. The analysis of the risk of victimization in different types of neighbourhood shows that the experience of crime varies significantly depending on where people live. Some communities are more crime prone than others and this has important consequences for how the risks of victimization are communicated and for the selection of policing styles that will be most effective. Furthermore, aspects of anti-social behaviour that most con...

A Qualitative Investigation into Experiences of the Role Episode in Soccer

Abstract: This study explored the phenomenon of the role episode in sport. Performance profiles and interviews were conducted with 11 male collegiate soccer players to identify the factors that contributed to the formation of positive perceptions of role states and the consequences for the individual and team. Role clarity developed via a combination of learning through implicit experiences in the sport and explicit instruction from role senders. Role acceptance formed through the focal person’s perceptions of the assigned performance role and the role sender. Positive perceptions of role states were suggested to improve performance by enhancing individual and group-related variables, including role satisfaction, group cohesion, and collective efficacy. The findings highlight the significance of understanding the factors that contribute to a positive role episode in sport and present implications for future team-building interventions.

Hispanic Concentration and the Conditional Influence of Collective Efficacy on Adolescent Childbearing

Abstract: Objective To determine how Hispanic residential concentration moderates the relationship between neighborhood collective efficacy and teenage birth rates. Design Cross-sectional analysis of census tract level survey data and birth records. Setting Sixty-five Los Angeles (California) County census tracts in 2000 and 2001. Participants Measures of neighborhood collective efficacy from 2600 adults from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Study (LAFANS) survey were linked with demographic information from the US 2000 Census and Los Angeles County birth records for 10- through 19-year-old mothers. Main Exposures Collective efficacy and Hispanic residential concentration. Main Outcome Measures Married and unmarried teenage birth rates. Results In census tracts with less than a 50% Hispanic population, a 1-SD increase in collective efficacy was associated with a 5.07 births per 1000 decrease in the unmarried teenage birth rate ( P P Conclusions Collective efficacy may help reduce adolescent childbearing in some, but not all, neighborhoods. An interaction between collective efficacy and Hispanic population concentration suggests cultural variation may play a role in how collective efficacy influences adolescent fertility. Possible explanations for the positive relationship between collective efficacy and married birth rates found in segregated Hispanic neighborhoods include profertility orientations and availability of childrearing networks for young parents. To help harness social capital to improve public health outcome, we suggest future studies examine the role of community cultural variation.

Perceived Neighborhood Characteristics and Problem Behavior Among Disadvantaged Children

Abstract: Using survey data from former Head Start children in the third grade from 15 sites across the nation (n = 576), this study examines the relationship between maternal subjective neighborhood attributions and their children's behavioral problems. Maternal perceptions of neighborhood characteristics were measured across five domains, including collective efficacy, barriers to services, negative neighbor affects, probability of child status attainment success, and overall neighborhood rating. Children's problem behaviors, measured with the Social Skills Rating System, includes externalizing and internalizing outcomes. Our results suggest that the worse the maternal assessments on each neighborhood construct, the greater the extent of children's problem behavior, holding constant child demographic factors and parental socioeconomic status. In addition, we find that family income effects on children's problem behavior are partially mediated by these perceived neighborhood domains. Taken together, these results suggest that neighborhood deprivation is related to problematic behavioral outcomes in children.

What Mediates the Macro-Level Effects of Economic and Social Stress on Crime?

Abstract: Social disorganisation theorists maintain that structural variables, such as poverty, ethnic heterogeneity and geographic mobility, exert their effects on crime by reducing the level of informal social control or collective efficacy in a neighbourhood. There is a large body of individual level evidence, however, which suggests that structural variables exert their effects on offending by disrupting the parenting process (e.g., by reducing the level of parental supervision).The purpose of this article is to report the results of an aggregate-level study designed to investigate whether the aggregate-level effects of poverty, ethnic heterogeneity and geographic mobility on rates of juvenile participation in crime are produced by raising the level of child neglect in a neighbourhood. The results support this hypothesis. Possible limitations of the study are discussed and suggestions for more definitive research are put forward.