title: Social Capital and Fear of Crime in Adolescence: A Multilevel Study.
abstract: Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the relationships between social capital (at the individual, the neighborhood, and the regional levels) and adolescents' fear of crime, while controlling for the main individual (sociodemographics, television viewing, and bullying victimization), neighborhood (neighborhood size and aggregated victimization), and regional (crime rate and level of urbanization) variables. Data were analyzed using a three-level model based on 22,639 15.7-year-old (SD = 0.67) students nested within 1081 neighborhoods and 19 Italian regions. The findings revealed that individual and contextual measures of social capital, modeled at the individual, neighborhood, and regional levels simultaneously, showed negative associations with adolescents' fear of crime. Males and participants with higher family affluence were less likely to feel fear of crime, whereas victimization, both at the individual and neighborhood levels, had a positive association with fear of crime. Strengths, limitations, and potential applications of the study are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vieno
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lenzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roccato
authors.affiliation: Youth & Society, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. aivlisss@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.affiliation: Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Valle d'Aosta, Aosta, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Grazia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Monaci
authors.affiliation: Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Valle d'Aosta, Aosta, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Scacchi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003415:Crime / Q000523:psychology*; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D066270:Social Capital; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Adolescence; Fear of crime; Multilevel models; Social capital