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Life Experiences among Urban Adolescents: Examining the Role of Context
Author(s) -
Allison Kevin W.,
Burton Linda,
Marshall Sheree,
PerezFebles Alina,
Yarrington Jason,
Kirsh Linda Bloch,
MerriwetherDeVries Cynthia
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8624.00074
Subject(s) - psychology , residence , context (archaeology) , developmental psychology , psychosocial , population , social environment , scale (ratio) , perception , demography , geography , cartography , archaeology , neuroscience , psychiatry , sociology , political science , law
Interest in the influence of context on the psychosocial development of adolescents led to the examination of neighborhood effects on the experience of adolescent life stress. Because of concerns regarding the population and ecological validity of existing measures of adolescent life events, the research group developed a scale for the measurement of life events among urban adolescents based on data from focus group interviews in the community of interest. Investigators utilized three strategies to examine the impact of neighborhood on adolescents' perceptions of life stress in a sample of 114 adolescents ( mean age = 15). Results indicated that life stress in the peer domain varied by the adolescent's neighborhood of residence. In addition, family/community stress was linearly related to neighborhood indices of economic resources.