Special Populations in the City: the Young and Old

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Special Populations in the City the Young and Old

• Thursday
• Nov 16 2006

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Todays Class

• Opening Remarks
• Lecture
• discuss your paper assignment a bit

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Needs and risk of the young and old (ch7
Unhealthy Places)

• Main Points
• Child poverty is increasing
• higher risk of many developmental and health
  related outcomes Homelessness, teen birth, STDs,
  victim of violence, mental health problems,
  school dropouts, out of work/underemployed
• Is this problem an epidemic? Is a main
  determinant contagion via peer influences?
  What do Fitzpatrick/LaGory seem to think?

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Needs and risk of the young and old (ch7
Unhealthy Places)

• Why are some adolescents more resilient to the
  same conditions?
• What are some protections (and risks) in the
  environment? Family, schools, community,
  interaction with peers, parents, and teachers.

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Needs and risk of the young and old (ch7
Unhealthy Places)

• The Ecology of Aging
• Place as a source of stability
• Meanings attached to objects, house itself
• Integration with sense of self.
• Mental maps of the neighbourhood
• Place as a source of anxiety and fear of crime
  and satisfaction
• Perceptions vs. reality
• Neighbourhood of the mind vs. actual neighbourhood

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Needs and risk of the young and old (ch7 of
Unhealthy Places)

• Level of fear and satisfaction is correlated with
  level of poverty, vacant housing,
  suburban/urbanity, and proportion of
  African-Americans.
• Importance of predictability and stability
•   Highest level of apprehension in places of
  transition and deterioration
• Hazards and risk
•   Physical, psychological, and social
  accessibility of stores (transportation),
  neighbours, green space, fresh air telephones
  dilapidated structures,
• Access to protection Informal and Formal

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Aneshensel, Carol S. and Clea A. Sucoff. 1996.
The Neighbourhood Context of Adolescent Mental
Health.

• Outcome Mental Health Disorders
• Two internalizing disorders
• Depression and anxiety (self-reported)
• Two externalizing disorders
• Conduct disorder
• Oppositional defiant disorder
• Adolescents Subjective appraisal of
  neighbourhood (two dimensions)
• Ambient hazards
• Social Cohesion
• Neighbourhood types (8 clusters)
• Identify clusters by socioeconomic status,
  race/ethnic mix

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The "Squash It" Campaign to Prevent Youth
Violence.

• Aimed at inner city youth in NYC, LA, Boston,
  Philly, Chicago, Kansas City, and Miami.
• Two objectives
• Use phrase and hand gesture to promote a social
  norm of walking away (saving face)
• Mobilize public support for programs offering
  alternatives to violence for youth
• Lots of visibility through promotion by artists
  (e.g. KRS-1) and media outlets (e.g. MTV)
• Survey who was most likely to have heard it?
  Least?
• African Americans, then Hispanics, then whites
  more boys than girls