The Influence of Women's Neighborhood Resources on Perceptions of Social Disorder

Abstract

Research links neighborhood social disorder with poorer health. But factors beyond observed disorder may influence perceptions that social disorder is problematic. This study investigates whether women's aggregate socioeconomic resources relative to men's in the broader neighborhood context attenuate the extent to which more prevalent observed social disorder within the immediate residential neighborhood contributes to perceptions of more problematic social disorder. This attenuation likely is pronounced among women, for whom sexual harassment in public spaces is a more salient concern compared to men. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, multilevel models analyze individual perceptions of problematic social disorder (N = 3,107) regressed on the interactive effect of observed social disorder within the census block group (N = 525) and women's relative resources within the neighborhood cluster (N = 80). The results show that women's relative resources within the broader neighborhood context protect against women's perceptions that typically undesirable neighborhood conditions are problematic.