Social Area Characteristics Research Articles

Exposed children, protected parents; shade in playgrounds as a previously unstudied intervention field of cancer prevention

ABSTRACTFor children, playgrounds represent a central place for physical activity and social interaction. However, at the playground, children are often exposed to sunlight. It is therefore surprising that sun exposure and shade levels at children’s playgrounds have, to date, received very little attention internationally. The ‘PlaSMa’ study presented here addresses this gap in the research, analyzing the percentage of shaded areas compared with the total playground area and the main play area for children in 144 playgrounds in the German city of Mannheim. In addition to this hierarchical linear modeling was used to investigate various social contexts. It was found that, on average, 41% of the total playground area was shaded, while only 22% of the main play area for children was in the shade. Consequently, in many cases, children play in direct sunlight, while parents and caregivers sit in the shade. These results were found to be independent of social area characteristics.

The health gap: the challenge of an unequal world

The health gap: the challenge of an unequal world

The health gap: the challenge of an unequal world

The health gap: the challenge of an unequal world

Weighing the contributions of material and social area deprivation to preterm birth

Evidence suggests that individual socioeconomic status is a better predictor of preterm birth (PTB) than other individual social characteristics, but it is not clear if socioeconomic (material) area context is likewise more strongly related to PTB than social area characteristics. We compared material and social area deprivation to determine which was more strongly associated with PTB. Live singleton births from Québec, Canada were obtained for 1999–2006 (N = 581,898). PTB was defined as <37 completed gestational weeks. Two composite indices representing area-level material and social deprivation were used in Cox proportional hazards regression models to compute hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for PTB, accounting for individual-level characteristics including maternal education. Results indicated that PTB rates were higher for areas with high material (7.1%) and social (6.8%) deprivation than those with low material (5.5%) and social (5.9%) deprivation. Adjusted hazards of PTB were slightly greater for material deprivation than social deprivation. These findings indicate that material area deprivation is marginally more strongly associated with PTB than social deprivation, but it is not clear that interventions to prevent PTB should focus on material deprivation any more than on social area deprivation.

Social Indicators of Substance Abuse Prevention: A Need-Based Assessment

We combine a variety of census and archival data to assess the relationships between social area characteristics and substance use. We found a substantial association between social area characteristics and substance use. We focus on intra and inter community, family, school and individual domain correlations to produce a prevention need-based score to rank communities from high to low need areas. Our analyses support the general risk and protective factor model advocated by Hawkins et al. (1992). As an important outcome of this work we suggest an objective criterion for selecting variables for the final model of the social indicators; suggest a set of weights for the selected factors and validate the selected factors with regard to substance abuse by linking the social indicator database to substance abuse outcome measures from another independent database. The selection criterion was based on intra domain correlations and proved to be robust. The weights were proportional to the information conveyed by each extracted factor. Analyses of intra-domain correlations are useful in identifying the types of prevention programs needed for each municipal area. Analyses of inter-domain correlations resulted in producing an overall need score based on social area characteristics. Many of the domains revealed more than one dimension, especially the school and the community/environment domains. Our analysis supports the use of social area characteristics in predicting the need for substance abuse prevention and treatment. It also suggests cautious and well informed decisions in selecting the indicators for a need based model.

The effects of social area characteristics on the relationship between social class and delinquency

This article presents a replication and extension of Johnstone's (1978) work on the effects of social class and the social characteristics of areas on delinquency. Using a sample of middle and junior high school students from several cities around the United States, the analysis conducted by Johnstone, who used a sample of youths from Chicago, is replicated. The analysis conducted here is designed to test whether the manner in which social context affects the impact of social class on involvement in delinquency is consistent with a relative deprivation explanation. While the results of this study provide replicative support for Johnstone's findings, it also was found that the pattern of results provides more support for opportunity explanations of offending than relative deprivation explanations.

Effective outpatient drug treatment organizations: program features and selection effects.

This research identifies program features that predict outpatient drug treatment outcomes. Treatment effectiveness is measured at the organizational level of analysis in a nationally representative sample of non-methadone outpatient drug misuse treatment organizations (N = 394). Multivariate analyses are conducted to identify program features at various stages of the client career that are related to client outcomes after controlling for client characteristics, organizational characteristics, and social area characteristics. Results indicate that effective non-methadone outpatient drug misuse treatment is related to a number of program features including adequate staff levels, quality assurance efforts, and client follow-up, as well as selection factors that reflect client problem severity.

The role of alcohol availability in alcohol consumption and alcohol problems.

The major theoretical approaches that have provided competing explanations for the distribution and nature of alcohol problems are reviewed and assessed. The sociocultural model and studies are briefly discussed with major emphasis given to the particular studies that have focused on different conceptions and dimensions of availability. Attempts to integrate the sociocultural model and the distribution of consumption model are also reviewed. A recent integrated model finds specific relationships between physical availability or the different types of outlets, with social area characteristics of different populations, and some four different alcohol problems, including cirrhosis, public drunk arrests, and misdemeanor and felony drunk driving arrests. Specific social area characteristics representing social class, minority status, and other structural features such as unemployment and women's labor force participation become implicated in alcohol problems independently of the effects of differing levels of availability. Additional related research on licensing and enforcement practices, beliefs, and attitudes of ABC personnel are also reviewed in relation to the general issue of availability. Other recent research on social and psychological dimensions of availability are also reviewed. Cross-sectional time series modeling is suggested as a technique for determining causal processes.

Alcohol availability, alcoholic beverage sales and alcohol-related problems.

A theoretical integration and an empirical test of the sociocultural model and the distribution of consumption model of alcohol problems is made for 51 California counties. In the counties of California, the kinds and number of outlets of alcoholic beverages are differentially related to the social area characteristics and to arrest rates for public drunkenness, misdemeanor and felony drunken-driving arrest rates and cirrhosis mortality rates.