Emerging research indicates that the everyday mobility patterns of urban adolescents are more complex than previously assumed in most residential “neighborhood effects” studies. We describe findings from the Columbus, OH, USA-based Adolescent Health and Development in Context (AHDC) study (N=1405) demonstrating the expansive and heterogeneous nature of routine mobility with a focus on Black-identifying youth.  We then consider the influence of intra-individual variability in exposure to neighborhood racial composition and violence for perceptions of safety.  GPS data over a 5-day period are combined with ecological momentary assessments of real-time safety perceptions to identify the spatial conditions under which youth report higher levels of unsafety.  Findings indicate that exposure to higher area-level violence is relevant for safety perceptions among Black youth.  However, momentary exposure to residentially whiter neighborhoods also increases perceptions of unsafety, but only for those Black youth who spend more time, on average, in white areas.  We conclude with a discussion of the implications of everyday safety perceptions for understanding racial health disparities emerging in adolescence.  

About the speaker:

Christopher R. Browning (Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1997) is a Professor of Sociology whose research interests include the causes and consequences of community social organization; the neighborhood context of crime, risk behavior, and health; the long-term effects of maltreatment during childhood; and multilevel statistical models. His current projects apply the concepts of activity space and ecological networks to research on the mechanisms linking contextual exposures (e.g., neighborhoods and schools) to youth behavioral health and well-being. He is Principal Investigator on the Adolescent Health and Development in Context (AHDC) study - a large scale, longitudinal investigation of the link between sociospatial exposures and developmental outcomes among youth in Franklin County, OH. The project is funded by NIDA, the WT Grant Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

Departmental Seminar - Racial Differences in Activity Space Disadvantage and Everyday Perceptions of Safety:  Using GPS and Ecological Momentary Assessment to Understand Urban Inequality 

Date: 29 January, 2024

Time: 11:00AM – 12:00PM

Venue: CJT-9.29

Speaker: Prof. Christopher Browning

Registration: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?ueid=92460