title: Neighborhood quality and somatic complaints among American youth.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examines the relationship between the social context of neighborhood and somatic complaints in a national probability sample of adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Structural equation modeling is used to estimate paths of influence between neighborhood quality and somatic complaints. An analysis of variance highlights the relationship between demographic characteristics and neighborhood quality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Neighborhood quality appears to play an indirect role in producing somatic complaints in adolescents. Linkages between correlates of somatic complaints, such as stressful life events, family environment, psychological distress, and measures of neighborhood quality are discussed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings emphasize the need to conceptualize adolescent somatization as contextually dependent and to use an ecological perspective when intervening with somaticizing teens.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3550, USA. mimi@email.unc.edu
authors.forename: Mimi V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Chapman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D004777:Environment; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012923:Social Class; D013315:Stress, Psychological