Social capital in an impoverished minority neighborhood: emergence and effects on children's mental health.
OBJECTIVE
This study aims to describe and analyze neighborhood effects on children's mental health, focusing on the emergence and effects of Social Capital or informal social control.


METHODS
Focus groups of Hispanic and African American families raising children in a low-income, minority neighborhood.


RESULTS
Parents' alienation from and distrust of public sources of formal social control, such as policemen, prevented the emergence of positive informal social control.


CONCLUSIONS
Psychiatric nurses and nurse practitioners must utilize public health and individual therapeutic approaches to prevent and treat children's mental health problems in disorganized, violent neighborhoods.
Hanks
Carole A
CA
School of Nursing, University of Rochester, Waco, TX, USA. carole_hanks@baylor.edu <carole_hanks@baylor.edu>
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000379:methods; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*; D002666:Psychology, Child; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012918:Social Alienation / Q000523:psychology; D012925:Social Conformity; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D015206:Southwestern United States; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult