Analysis of aggregate- and individual-level data for a national sample of white women suggest that adolescent nonmarital sexual activity and contraceptive use are shaped by the local opportunity structure and normative environment. Social disintegration, socioeconomic status, and availability of employment opportunities for women emerged as…

This article provides an empirical test of the widely accepted assumption that migration contributes to union instability. The data come from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) data base MMP93. We use multilevel discrete time event history analysis to specify the odds of union dissolution for male household heads by individual- and…

Shows that there are at least two different perspectives from which residential segregation can be examined. Segregation can be measured as it deviates from a situation of complete desegregation or in terms of a situation in which there is random segregation in the city. New criteria for indexes of residential segregation are developed. (Author/JM)

Patterns of functional and size differentiation among local organizations may be seen as the result of basic structural properties of the community. The principal goal of this paper is to examine certain conditions promoting differentiation on these dimensions. (Author/EB)

In New Jersey suburban communities, blacks were most exposed to property and violent crime and whites and Asians were least exposed. Individual characteristics such as home ownership, income, and education did predict crime level of an individual's community, but contextual factors (community racial composition, poverty, and population size)…

Longitudinal data from the National Youth Survey indicate that, in general, social control variables, such as attachment to family and educational aspirations, significantly predicted sexual activity among white adolescents, while strain variables, such as perceived inability to achieve educational goals, predicted sexual behavior of black…

This study explores the relationship between social capital and adolescent violent behaviors for a national sample of secondary school students (N = 4,834). Cross-sectional data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were used to evaluate multivariate models examining the family school and neighborhood correlates of violent…

Focuses on the changing of neighborhoods from white to Negro. Demonstrates statistically that distance from tract or Negro area alone cannot adequately explain or predict the racial turnover of neighborhoods over a ten-year period. Such an explanation requires considering economic and social measures of geographic mobility for white residents.…

Using national longitudinal data on 10,860 adolescents, a comparative analysis of community contextual effects on delinquency examined variables derived from three theories. Youths in areas of high male joblessness who experienced stressful life events or little parental supervision were especially likely to be involved in delinquency. The…

Examines the relationships between class, ethnicity, and the natural community life cycle and determines how these factors bear on the racial composition of suburban communities. Suggests that the variables associated with the ecological life cycle model are not significant predictors of change in suburban racial composition. (Author/APM)

Low-income neighborhoods with high African American concentrations increased mortality for all residents, but particularly young and middle-aged men; Mexican American neighborhoods conferred a mortality advantage on male residents; women received a mortality advantage in neighborhoods with higher average educational attainment; and individual…

Is neighborhood disadvantage associated with social support? If so, does residential stability modify that association? And are there gender- and race-contingent patterns? Among a sample of adults aged 65 years and older, neighborhood disadvantage is associated positively with received and donated support among black women, but only in…

Analysis of data from national surveys of majority ethnic groups in Romania and Bulgaria examined the effects on tolerance toward minority groups of education, community ethnic composition, urbanism, age, gender, perceived threat to national security from the minority group's homeland, democratic values, and prevailing political ideology. Contains…

This article addresses shortcomings in the literature on environmental inequality by (a) setting forth and testing four models of environmental inequality and (b) explicitly linking environmental inequality research to spatial mismatch theory and to the debate on the declining significance of race. The explanatory models ask whether the…