(Page 1 of 7) - Adolescent At-Risk Behaviors: A Multi-Level Analysis of Family, Neighborhood and School Factors Affecting Adolescent Behavioral Outcomes authored by Beveridge, Andrew. and Catsambis, Sophia.

Title

Adolescent At-Risk Behaviors: A Multi-Level Analysis of Family, Neighborhood and

School Factors Affecting Adolescent Behavioral Outcomes

Authors

Andrew A. Beveridge, Queens College and Graduate Center -- CUNY

Sophia Catsambis, Queens College CUNY/ National Center for Education Statistics

A recent focus on possible effects of neighborhood and school on adolescent

outcomes seems warranted, including by our own work (Catsambis and Beveridge,
2001

, Sampson, et al, 2002.) The addition of students’ residential locations to the

National Educational Longitudinal Survey, 1988 (NELS: 88) data along with
demographic (Census) and other variables allow us to nationally assess the extent to
which the different spheres of adolescents’ lives affect their behaviors and academic
achievements. Preliminary analyses of dropping out of school (Catsambis and
Beveridge, 2002) indicate a robust clustering at the neighborhood level. Indeed, the
addition of the neighborhood effects reduces and dwarfs any remaining variance among
schools. Early dropouts are highly concentrated in neighborhoods with high levels of
African Americans, high concentrations of neighborhood disadvantage and high levels of
high school dropouts. At the school level, clustering of dropouts is small but schools
with high ratios of students to teachers and schools with high levels of absenteeism do
contribute to dropping out. The analyses controlled for the likelihood or “propensity”
that the respondent lived in neighborhoods with high levels of dropouts.

This paper will generalize that analysis to a larger variety of behavioral outcomes

in the 10

grade, such as chronic absenteeism, disengagement from school activities,

disciplinary problems and drug and alcohol use. All of these adolescent behaviors may
place adolescents at risk of educational failure. Surprisingly, there seems to be little
literature that examines neighborhood level effects for such outcomes. A few scholars
have investigated neighborhood effects on adolescent behaviors, such as, dropping out of
school (Crane 1991), childbearing (Crane 1991, Sucoff and Upchurch 1998), problem
drinking (Cokers and Borders (2001), and adolescent substance abuse (Crum, et al. 1996,
Denton and Kampfe 1994, Skager and Fisher 1989, Jang and Johnson 2001). However, a
recent review by Sampson, Morenoff and Gannon-Rowley (2002) concludes that little
research on neighborhood effects uses multi-level analyses, and especially those that
bring to bear non-demographic factors. A recent addition of student residential locations
to the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS) makes such analyses at
the national level possible for the first time.

DATA AND METHODS

Out proposed paper uses data from the Base Year and First Follow-Up surveys of

the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988(NELS). We have constructed a file
from restricted-use data, which consists of 13,547 students from 798 public schools. This
sub-sample consists of all cases with valid data from the base year parent, student and
school administrator surveys and the first Follow-Up student and school survey. We

A longer version is available on the web at http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/Reports/report54.pdf