A Multilevel Contextual Model of Neighborhood Collective Efficacy

Abstract

Different data sources were used to examine hypothesized relations among neighborhood-, family-, and individual-level variables, and perceptions of neighborhood collective efficacy. Data were from 1,105 individuals (56% female, 42% African American, and 58% White) nested within 55 neighborhoods and 392 families, analyzed within a multilevel design using a 3-level model. At the neighborhood level, the study examined relations between Census, police, and neighborhood representative indicators. At the family level, the model examined the influence of marital status and family income. At the individual level, gender and age were examined. Results indicated that age at the individual level, marital status at the family level, and poverty and perceived gang activity at the neighborhood level predicted levels of neighborhood collective efficacy. The study illustrated significant variation across neighborhoods and families, and demonstrates the utility of combining different sources of neighborhood data to examine relations of interest within a multilevel framework.

Understanding Preparedness for Natural Hazards: Cross cultural comparison

“…One construct that encapsulates community members' ability to identify needs and formulate questions is collective efficacy. Collective efficacy is a measure of co-operation and assistance available within a community and community members' ability to assess their capabilities and resource needs and formulate plans to use resources to confront challenging tasks and it has demonstrated its utility in collectivistic cultures (Duncan et al 2003;Paton, Gregg et al 2008). Community participation was assessed using a measure developed by Eng and Parker (1994), and collective efficacy using a measure developed by Zaccaro et al (1995).…”

Managing Tsunami Risk: Social Context Influences on Preparedness

“…Collective efficacy describes community members' ability to assess their capabilities and resource needs in relation to challenging tasks, define their goals, develop plans for using resources to achieve goals, and it influences the level of persistence people demonstrate when confronted with complex and challenging tasks (Bandura, 1997;Duncan et al, 2003;Zaccaro, Blair, Peterson, & Zazanis, 1995). Working out what is required to prepare for the consequences of infrequently occurring hazards such as a tsunami would be one such task.…”

Operationalizing the concept of neighborhood: Application to residential location choice analysis

“…This solution has been implemented in, for example, hierarchical linear models for studying community psychology (Brodsky, 1999;Duncan et al, 2003), housing price (Orford, 2002) and, to a limited extent, urban form effect on travel behavior (Boarnet and Sarmiento, 1998). To the best of our knowledge, the MSL model of Guo and Bhat (2004) represents the first implementation of the multi-scale concept of neighborhood in a discrete choice modeling framework.…”