Neighborhood-Level Cohesion and Disorder: Measurement and Validation in Two Older Adult Urban Populations
Open Access
- 2 March 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
- Vol. 64B (3), 415-424
- https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbn041
Abstract
Drawing from collective efficacy and social disorganization theories, we developed and validated measures of neighborhood-level social processes. Data came from 2 large, population-based cohort studies of urban-dwelling older adults, the Chicago Neighborhood and Disability Study (CNDS, n = 3,882) and the Baltimore Memory Study (BMS, n = 1,140). Data on neighborhood social processes were collected from residents using a standardized instrument identical in the 2 studies. We used confirmatory factor analysis and descriptive statistics to explore reliability and validity of the neighborhood-level measures. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated 2 latent factors: social cohesion and exchange (i.e., observations of and interactions with neighbors) and social and physical disorder (i.e., neighborhood problems and unsafe conditions). Neighborhood-level measures of cohesion and disorder showed moderate to high levels of internal consistency (alphas = .78 and .85 in CNDS and .60 and .88 in BMS). Inter-resident agreements were low (intra-neighborhood correlation coefficients = .08 and .11 in CNDS and .05 and .33 in BMS). Cohesion showed a modest, positive association with a composite measure of neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES). Disorder showed a strong, negative association with neighborhood SES. Findings provide initial evidence of the reliability and construct validity of these neighborhood-level social process measures.This publication has 45 references indexed in Scilit:
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