This paper will explore the social and economic impacts of public housing revitalization on households with minor children. The research traces the relocations of families from two public housing complexes to other public housing complexes or market housing, using Housing Choice formerly Section 8 vouchers. We contrast and compare the socioeconomic characteristics of the original neighborhoods to the relocation sites from the census tract level, exploring changes in resources available to families.

Previous literature has shown that risk factors for delinquency include individual characteristics of impulsivity and risk-taking as well as contextual influences such as neighborhoods, parenting and engagement in physical activity (e.g., exercise, sports). Theory suggests that individual characteristics interact with contextual factors to influence child development, however evidence is limited. The current study examined the interaction between these individual and contextual risks to influence childhood delinquency in a community sample of 89 children ranging from 9 to 12 years of age (M = 10.4, SD = 1.1). Questionnaire measures showed that both caregiver report of impulsivity and self-reported risk-taking were positively associated with self-reported delinquency, yet no interactions with contextual factors were found. When using computer tasks, neither impulsivity nor risk-taking were significantly associated with delinquency. However, a risk-taking by physical activity interaction was found, such that at low levels of physical activity risk-taking was positively related to delinquency, yet at high levels of physical activity, risk-taking and delinquency were unrelated. Thus, programs that involve physical activity may be useful prevention and intervention strategies for risk-taking children.

Sustainable urban mobility calls for well-informed design of neighborhoods. Although many studies have been conducted in the field, there is little evidence about the relationships between design elements, urban quality and behavior. Little is also known about residents’ valuation of design and urban quality in this context. This study uses a multidisciplinary approach to deal with these issues. The focus is on children’s leisure activities, their travel mode and independence of adult escort in trips to school. Logistic regression models were used to analyze connections between neighborhood design, parents’ satisfaction with urban qualities and children’s behavior. The study included socioeconomic factors, parents’ stated importance of qualities and travel mode to work. It was conducted in a suburban district in the Stockholm region, in three different modernist neighborhoods and one traditional villa area. The results support the hypothesis that environmental and social qualities, and proximity to school, can influence children’s trips to school, and the location and frequency of children’s leisure activities. The results confirm and extend earlier research. Two separate lifestyles were identified across neighborhoods with differencesin housing type and socioeconomic characteristics. They related to parents’ preferences for and priorities of public versus private urban qualities, and location of children’s leisure activity and travel mode to school. The results suggest that schools should be located in neighborhoods, close to both homes and transit, that neighborhoods are car-free or traffic separated and that the outdoor environment is stimulating and cycling-friendly. They further suggest that a higher quality of children’s environment would be achieved if parents’ preferences had greater impact on urban developments, whereas current professional design ideals of mixed traffic and high density can be unsupportive ofthese qualities and can increase car escorts. Altogether, the results point to that design at the neighborhood scale has significance in relation to mobility requirements; and that new priorities are needed in planning and design as part of a comprehensive urban and transportation policy.

Adverse birth outcomes have many causes but there is increasing awareness that air pollution is one of them. This study examines the effects of air pollution on infant health and mortality using data from the State of Georgia. The estimation methods control for potential endogenous variables such as the length of gestation and the demand for prenatal care. Moreover dummy-fixed effects are used to control for unobserved neighborhood characteristics using the place of residence of the mother. In addition, the model uses a comprehensive framework, which considers birth weight, length of gestation, and mortality, thus allowing pre and postnatal assessment of the impact of air pollution on health. The empirical results show moderate evidence of an effect of air pollution on low birth weight and length of gestation and found a more substantive effect on infant mortality.

This dissertation aims to investigate alternative explanations for the adjustment of low-income inner-city minorities to residential locations. Particularly, this study searches for an answer to find the reason why low-income inner-city minorities do not move to residential locations with more job opportunities (suburbs). Much of the basis for the analysis in this dissertation derives from the irreversible investment theory under the assumption that moving can be considered as an irreversible investment. First, this study formulates a search model in which individuals simultaneously search for jobs and residential locations in two places: suburb and inner-city. Second, by employing The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and Geocode files, this study attempts to address how social capital plays a role in households’ moving decisions under the irreversibility assumption. This study presents evidence that the social capital has a negative causal effect on moving decision, that is, the high levels of social capital reduce the probability of moving.

I report 1684 new proper motion systems in the southern sky (declinations -90 degrees to -47 degrees) with 0.50 arcsec/yr > mu >= 0.18 arcsec/yr. This effort is a continuation of the SuperCOSMOS-RECONS (SCR) proper motion search to lower proper motions than reported in Hambly et al. (2004); Henry et al. (2004); Subasavage et al. (2005a,b). Distance estimates are presented for the new systems, assuming that all stars are on the main sequence. I find that 34 systems are within 25 pc, including three systems --- SCR 0838-5855, SCR 1826-6542, and SCR 0630-7643AB --- anticipated to be within 10 pc. These mini-motion (MINIMO) discoveries constitute a more than ten-fold increase in new systems found in the same region of sky searched for systems with mu >= 0.50 arcsec/yr, suggesting a happy hunting ground for new nearby slower proper motion systems in the region just north (declinations -47 degrees to 0 degrees), much of which has not been rigorously searched during previous efforts.

As distance from a house to retail sites decreases the price of a house should increase, ceteris paribus, because of increased shopping convenience. On the other hand, as distance decreases price should also decrease because the house is exposed to increased spillover of disamenities – noise, light, traffic, etc. – from the retail use. The study uses Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal data and a parcel level Geographic Information system map from King County (Seattle) Washington. An hedonic process is used to estimate the price effects of both the expected positive and negative price effects. Travel distance is a proxy for convenience and Euclidian distance is a proxy for negative spillovers. Standard hedonic housing price variables are used for control along with distance to other classes of non-residential uses and indexes of neighborhood street layout and connectivity. In traditional gridiron neighborhood, both convenience and negative spillovers have the expected effect on housing price. The net effect is a price effect curve with a net decrease in price at very short distances between houses and retail sites. But, beyond a short distance to the extent of convenient walking distance (about ¼ mile) the net effect is positive. In a non-traditional edge city type neighborhood, there is no effect, either positive or negative. This is due to the much greater distances between residential uses and retail uses in this type neighborhood that result from zoning that segregates land uses and long travel distance resulting from curvilinear street layout.

Academic achievement among Latino adolescents was examined to determine what contextual factors contribute to school success. ANCOVA analyses indicated that lower levels of perceived discrimination and a higher sense of school belonging were associated with better grades. Neighborhood social capital was not associated with school grades. More adaptation stress was associated with lower grades for US-reared students, but it was not associated with grades for more recent Latino immigrants. The findings suggest that discrimination, school belonging, and adaptation stress play an important role in academic achievement among Latino youth. They also suggest that immigrants may be more academically resilient than their second generation peers in the face of adaptation stress.

Trygghet är en mänsklig rättighet för alla individer. Det finns dock sociala, ekonomiska och miljömässiga faktorer i samhället som kan påverka den upplevda tryggheten. Denna uppsats har avgränsats till att undersöka vad som upplevs påverka tryggheten på ett bostadsområde i en större stad i mellersta Sverige. Bostadsområdets invånare har sämre socioekonomisk status än generellt i staden. Boende på bostadsområdet har även visat på otrygghet och oro att gå ut efter det blivit mörkt. Detta beror främst på rädsla att utsättas för brott. Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att öka förståelsen kring vad ungdomar och lokala aktörer upplever kan påverka den upplevda tryggheten på bostadsområdet. Metoden var kvalitativ med induktiv utgångspunkt. Datainsamlingen genomfördes med hjälp av två fokusgrupper, en med ungdomar och en med aktörer som arbetar med trygghet på bostadsområdet. Analys skedde därefter med innehållsanalys. Med hjälp av meningskategorisering utkristalliserades fem teman på trygghet. Resultatet och slutsatserna visar att det upplevs vara flertalet faktorer som påverkar tryggheten på bostadsområdet. Det fanns även olika åsikter vad som upplevdes som viktigast för tryggheten på bostadsområdet. Det kan således vara viktigt att lyfta fram boendes åsikter i arbetet med trygghet på bostadsområdet. / Security is a human right for all individuals. However, there are social, economic and environmental factors in the community that may affect the perceived security. This paper has been limited to examining what is affecting the security of a local neighborhood area in a major city in central Sweden. People living in the area have lower socioeconomic status than most other areas in the city. People in the neighborhood have also shown the insecurity and anxiety to go out after it got dark. This is mainly due to fear of being exposed to crime. The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of what adolescents and adults’ thinks can affect the perceived security in the neighborhood area. A qualitative method with an inductive focus where conducted. The data was collected using two focus groups. The analysis was done with a content analysis. With the help of meaningful categorization, five themes emerged. The results show that there are many factors that affect the security of the residential area. There were different opinions what was perceived as most important for security protection factor. It may therefore be important to highlight the residents' views in the work of security in the residential area.

<p>The current study examined the relationships among the neighborhood environment, levels of self-efficacy, health behaviors, and health outcomes among adults in the United States. The goals of the research were as follows: 1. To examine the role that health behaviors play in the relationship between neighborhood and health; 2. To determine whether health-related self-efficacy mediates or moderates the relationship between neighborhood and health behaviors; 3. To investigate potential gender, education, and race differences in the relationships among the constructs. </p><p>The study included 5,600 whites and 321 blacks who participated in the first wave of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the Unites States (MIDUS I). The age range of the sample was 20-75 (mean= 47.14 years) and roughly half of the participants were male (47.4%). Data on the neighborhood (including safety, physical conditions, social cohesion, and homeplace), health-related self-efficacy, health behaviors, and the health outcomes of self-rated health, obesity, and cardiovascular disease were collected through telephone interviews and self-report questionnaires. </p><p>Structural equation modeling was employed to address the research goals. The results showed that self-efficacy mediated the relationship between neighborhood and physical activity and that health behaviors mediated the path between neighborhood and physical activity. However, self-efficacy did not serve as a moderator in the association between neighborhood and physical activity. Demographic differences were found according to age, gender, race, and education. Specifically, the model was particularly salient for late midlife and older adults, females, and those with some college education. Furthermore, the impact of neighborhood factors on self-efficacy was greater for blacks than whites.</p><p>The present findings contribute to the literature by elucidating the interrelations among neighborhood and the individual-level factors of self-efficacy and physical activity in predicting health outcomes. Furthermore, the direct effect of physical activity on health outcomes suggests that physical activity engagement should be a particular area of intervention focus, especially among older adults and women. Future research should include objective measures of neighborhood, physical activity, and health, additional contexts such as the workplace, individuals above the age of 75, and greater representation of minority groups.</p> / Dissertation