Effects Of Community Characteristics Research Articles

The Effects of Community Characteristics on Solid-Waste Generation and Management in the Village (A Case Study: Kurandak, North Sumatra)

Waste is a very complex and urgent problem to be solved. The problems occur due to the participation of the residents as the leading actor. This study aimed to determine the significance of the influence of gender, age, education, employment status, income, duration of stay, and the level of knowledge on waste generation and management. Respondents to questionnaires and interviews were 37 people whose numbers were determined based on the Slovin equation, while data was analyzed using SPSS Statistics 20 software. A person's educational status significantly positively affects people's habits in reducing waste generation. The following positive significance was income, gender, and length of stay. Age and employment status have a negative correlation, indicating that the older and working, the less waste the society generates. Besides affecting waste generation, it turned out that education also significantly affects waste management. Therefore, education is the main factor considered in waste planning. The results of this study can be used as input for the Indonesian Government in providing information through training and the provision of waste management facilities.

How do Incumbents Affect the Founding of Cooperatives? Evidence from the German electricity industry

As cooperatives become a crucial part of our society’s repository of solutions for addressing the sustainability challenges, the very emergence of cooperatives continues to puzzle scholars. In this study we address a central concern for both organizational scholars and sustainability advocates, i.e. where and under which conditions cooperatives emerge as an alternative form to corporations. Building on organizational ecology theories, we argue that the varying organizational characteristics within local incumbent forms constitute an additional layer to explain cooperatives’ emergence, above and beyond the known effects of community characteristics and incumbents’ aggregated density (or capacity). Our analysis of a unique data set of German energy cooperatives between 2003 and 2010 support our hypotheses. Our results show that energy cooperatives are more likely to be founded where incumbent utilities have higher average age and greater size diversity, because age-related inertia and lack of competition among incumbents of diverse size limit their adaptability towards serving the new market demand for renewable energy.

Effects Of Community Characteristics On Cardiometabolic Risks In Southern Older Adults

Effects Of Community Characteristics On Cardiometabolic Risks In Southern Older Adults

Assessing the influence of the Columbine shooting on federal sentencing outcomes

School shootings are not a new phenomenon in the United States or internationally. In comparison to other acts of violence experienced by youth, such tragedies are uncommon but garner extensive media attention. The Columbine High School shooting received more attention across a broader range of issues than any other school shooting, with only the Sandy Hook tragedy rivaling it for media attention. In the aftermath of the Columbine shooting, public sentiment regarding violence in schools became a central point of contention that bred fear and panic. Given the embeddedness of judges within the larger community context and the effects of community characteristics on sentencing outcomes, we wondered if the Columbine shooting – via moral panic and community upheaval – might have had an impact on judges imposing criminal sentences. To assess the effect of the Columbine shooting on judicial decision-making outcomes, the current study uses United States Sentencing Commission data from 1998 through 2001. In doing so, it contributes to the extant literature concerning the embeddedness of judges within communities and answers recent call for more research on the temporal context of sentencing disparities.

Healthcare Use in the Heartland: How Health Care Selection Varies Between Rural, Retirement‐Age Migrants and Long‐Term Residents

AbstractOne increasingly important problem affecting rural health care selection is the tendency of older residents to bypass local health care providers. This research investigates how the effects of community characteristics and attachment on health care bypass behavior vary between rural retirement‐age migrants and retirement‐age long‐term residents. Non‐health‐related behaviors, such as purchasing goods and services outside one's community during a health care trip, that is, “outshopping,” could influence bypass if individuals combine trips for their medical care with other consumer needs. Basing our work on the outshopping theory, we argue that bypass behavior is one facet of consumer consumption patterns for both rural retirement‐age migrants and long‐term residents. In addition, dissatisfaction with local health care and services like shopping can “push” rural residents to bypass local health care and travel greater distances for primary health care. We further contend that strong community attachment has an opposite “pull” effect that can help to negate the push of outshopping and reduce the likelihood of bypass. Our results reveal retirement‐age migrants are significantly more likely to bypass local primary health care providers than retirement‐age long‐term residents. Furthermore, our analysis bridges the rural health care and retirement community development literature to suggest that outshopping theory can now be applied to rural primary health care bypass behavior.

Community Influences on Married Women’s Safer Sex Negotiation Attitudes in Bangladesh: A Multilevel Analysis

The influence of disadvantaged or deprived community on individuals' health risk-behaviors is increasingly being documented in a growing body of literature. However, little is known about the effects of community characteristics on women's sexual attitudes and behaviors. To examine community effects on married women's safer sex negotiation attitudes, we analyzed cross-sectional data from the 2011 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys on a sample of 15,134 married women in 600 communities. We estimated two multilevel logistic regression models. Model 1, which included only individual-level variables, showed that women's autonomy/empowerment, age, and HIV knowledge had significant associations with their safer sex negotiation attitudes. We did not find any socioeconomic status gradient in safer sex negotiation attitudes at the individual level. Adding community-level variables in Model 2 significantly improved the fit of the model. Strikingly, we found that higher community-level poverty was associated with greater positive safer sex negotiation attitudes. Prevailing gender norms and overall women's empowerment in the community also had significant effects. While research on community influences calls for focusing on disadvantaged communities, our research highlights the importance of not underestimating the challenges that married women in economically privileged communities may face in negotiating safer sex. To have sufficient and equitable impact on married women's sexual and reproductive health, sexual and reproductive health promotion policies and programs need to be directed to women in wealthier communities as well.

Citizens' perceptions of police in rural US communities: a multilevel analysis of contextual, organisational and individual predictors

There has been little research on citizens' attitudes about policing in rural communities in the USA, and existing studies do not examine the effects of community characteristics on these attitudes. We extend this work theoretically and analytically by considering the effects of community context, police organisation and individual characteristics on attitudes about police. Using data for a large sample of citizens residing in 98 small towns in Iowa, we employed multilevel ordered logistic regression techniques to model citizens' rating of police protection and degree of trust in the police. At the community level, social disorganisation was negatively associated with both outcome variables, and social integration was positively related to trust in the police. Town police departments were viewed more favourably than county sheriff's offices for both police protection and trust. Individual-level perceptions of social integration and community safety were positively related to both outcome variables. Respondents' sociodemographic characteristics had relatively few significant effects. A statistical interaction between social disorganisation and individual perceptions of social integration was observed for trust in the police, with higher levels of perceived social integration attenuating the negative effect of social disorganisation. In sum, contextual, organisational and individual predictors all had important effects on attitudes about police in this study. These findings demonstrate that theories emphasising community context are essential to a more complete understanding of crime-related attitudes in rural communities.

Virtuous villages and sinful cities? A spatial analysis into the effects of community characteristics on turnout and blank/invalid voting in local elections in Belgium 2006–2012

Does the size of a community influence political participation? Using spatial analysis, we investigate this question for the absolute level and change in local electoral turnout and invalid voting, using municipality-level data (N=588) from the 2006 and 2012 local elections in Belgium. The population size of a community has a clear negative effect on political participation, while area size matters far less and has a positive association. Compulsory voting in Belgium keeps young people showing up at elections, but with a higher likelihood of spoiling their vote. One of the main negative influences on participation is computer voting instead of paper and pencil ballots. Clear differences between the language communities in Belgium remain, after controlling for other community variables.

The Effects of Community Characteristics and Member Retention of Virtual Communities

This paper investigates the antecedents of member retention for virtual communities. This research theorizes the motivating mechanism from both perspectives of the information seekers and providers. Four antecedents - communication breadth, depth, responsiveness, and cross-posting - have a statistically significant influence on member retention. Furthermore, we have found that communication breadth and depth have a diminishing effect on the marginal impact on member retention as well as the interaction between these factors has a negative impact on member retention although each of them separately has a positive impact. The implications of this study help understand the dynamics of knowledge sharing in virtual communities.

The Effects of Community Characteristics on Polluter Compliance Levels

<i>This paper analyzes the effects of community characteristics on compliance levels—emissions relative to effluent limits—at polluting facilities. In particular, it examines both direct effects and indirect effects; the second type of effects represents the linking of two related effects: (1) effects of community characteristics on regulatory decisions to intervene against specific facilities with inspections and penalties; and (2) effects of regulatory interventions on facility compliance levels. Estimation reveals (1) community characteristics significantly affect both regulatory interventions and facility performance; (2) direct effects and indirect effects are generally comparable in magnitude; and (3) total effects are economically meaningful.</i> (JEL Q25)

The effects of community characteristics on community social behavior

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a community’s economic characteristics on its ability to generate adherence to socially efficient norms. These norms prescribe a behavior for an individual when his/her preferred behavior imposes a negative externality on others. This paper explores social norms as a mechanism of how neighborhood characteristics can affect individual behavior. Understanding the mechanism through which community characteristics affect individual behavior is important in that it enables the development of a testable structural empirical model which is purged of the omitted variable bias arising from the potential endogeneity of the neighborhood choice.

Direct and moderating effects of community context on the psychological well-being of African American women.

The effects of community characteristics on well-being were examined among 709 African American women. Direct and moderating effects of neighborhood characteristics on distress were tested. Aggregate-level ratings of neighborhood cohesion and disorder were significantly related to distress, although the relation between cohesion and distress became nonsignificant when individual risk factors were statistically controlled. Aggregate-level neighborhood variables interacted significantly with individual risk and resource variables in the prediction of distress, consistent with trait-situation interaction theories (D. Magnusson & N. S. Endler, 1977). Community cohesion intensified the benefits of a positive life outlook. Community disorder intensified both the benefits of personal resources and the detrimental effects of personal risk factors. Results showed evidence of resilience among African American women.

The Influence of Community Characteristics on Police Performance in a Deeply Divided Society: The Case of Israel

This study investigates the effects of community characteristics on police performance in a deeply divided society. Conflict theories argue that crime control rises as minority size increases. In communities in which minorities become visible, the clearance rate will be higher. However, when minorities are highly segregated, segregation becomes an instrument of social control and the clearance rate will be lower. Functionalist theories argue that the police are reactive to the seriousness of offenses. Therefore, when community characteristics are controlled, clearance rates will be related to the community rate of property and violent crime. In this paper both theories are tested in the context of a highly segregated residential society. Using a sample of 118 Israeli Arab and Jewish communities, differences in clearance rates between the two types of communities were studied. It was found that those community characteristics affecting police performance are similar in Jewish and Arab communities. However, comparison reveals that the level of clearance rates for Arab communities is much higher than for Jewish communities. Implications of these results for future research are discussed.

What explains rural-urban differentials in child mortality in Brazil?

This paper presents an analysis of differentials in child survival by rural-urban place of residence in Brazil and examines the hypothesis that observed mortality differentials by place of residence are merely manifestations of underlying differences in socioeconomic status and demographic and reproductive behavior. The child mortality data come from the 1986 Demographic and Health Survey of Brazil and supplementary community-level variables are obtained from a database assembled by the Brazilian federal statistical agency. Child mortality rates are substantially and significantly lower in urban areas of Brazil. Our results suggest, however, that the urban advantage does not simply reflect underlying differences in socioeconomic and behavioral characteristics at the individual and household levels; rather, community variables appear to play an independent and important role. We also find that the effects of community characteristics on child survival are moderated by household socioeconomic factors, especially maternal education. Differences in socioeconomic characteristics are therefore important in explaining rural-urban child mortality differentials, but not in the way hypothesized by previous researchers.

Research Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Health Care Provider and Family Acceptance of a Rural Community‐Based Nursing Service for Chronically Ill Children. B. A. Cook, J. P. Krischer, and R. Kraft. Reducing Infant Mortality in Rural America. S. L. Gortmaker, C.J.G. Clark, S. N. Graven, A. M. Sobol, and A. Geronimus. Hospital‐Sponsored Medical Groups: Their Impact on Access to Primary Care in Rural Communities. L. A. Aday. Importance of Community Size in Practice Location Decisions of Final Year Residents. P. A. Samaha, R. R. Franklin, and J. C. Rice. Effects of Community Characteristics on Young Physicians' Decisions Regarding Rural Practice. K. M. Langwell, J. Drabek, S. Nelson, and E. Lenk. Social Support and Hypertension Among Blacks and Whites in a Rural, Southern Community. D. S. Strogatz and S. A. James. The Incidence of Severe Trauma in Small Rural Hospitals. N. Smith. A Retrospective Cohort Study of Mortality Among New York State Farm Bureau Members. A. D. Stark, H. G. Chang, E. F. Fitzgerald, K. Riccardi, and R. R. Stone. Farming Occupations and Mortality from Non‐Hodgkin's Lymphoma in Utah. M. C. Schumacher.

Community Characteristics, Women's Education, and Fertility in Peru

Using data from the World Fertility Survey of 1977-78, this paper examines how community characteristics influence completed fertility in Peru. The analysis shows that community characteristics do not condition (interact with) the effects of mother's education in determining completed fertility. Rather, the effects of community characteristics are best described by a threshold model, which posits that below or above critical cut points, the effects on fertility of community (or individual) characteristics will diminish or increase. Empirical results showed that residence in communities with higher levels of access to the benefits of development decreased completed fertility beyond what one would have predicted on the basis of women's characteristics alone, and this effect was further amplified with increasing levels of development.

Effects of community characteristics on measures of job satisfaction.

Effects of community characteristics on measures of job satisfaction.