title: Relevant social and spatial contexts for elementary school children: An examination of multiple scales.
abstract: This study examined direct area-level effects of 4 common child well-being outcomes across multiple scales of residential and school neighborhoods to identify relevant contexts for measuring neighborhood effects on elementary school children. Results from growth curve models indicate that neighborhoods operationalized as residential and school census tracts exerted similar effect sizes while neighborhoods operationalized as school attendance zones showed attenuated effects. These results suggest that it may be reasonable to interchange residential and school census tracts when examining contextual effects on child well-being. In addition, results suggest that school attendance zones represent conservative, theoretically sound neighborhoods for elementary school children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, 4001 Discovery Drive, Boulder, CO 80303, United States; Institute of Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1440 15th Street, Boulder, CO 80302, United States. Electronic address: Jamie.Humphrey@Colorado.edu.
authors.forename: Jamie L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Humphrey
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012574:Schools; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Longitudinal; MAUP; Neighborhood; School attendance zone; School neighborhood