Session: Understanding the Role of Neighborhood Context for Behavior Problems: When, What’s Important, and for Whom Neighborhood Matters (Society for Prevention Research 25th Annual Meeting)

Introduction: The neighborhood settings in which people live have been shown to have an important role in a range of health behaviors and health outcomes. While many studies have focused on physical health and, to some extent, mental health outcomes, less is known about how neighborhoods might affect problem behaviors and substance use. Recent research also underscores that potential effects of neighborhood context may depend on developmental stage, the specific features of the neighborhood under study, as well as individual differences. This panel will examine the role of neighborhood for behavior and substance use problems addressing (a) objective and self-reported neighborhood features and neighborhood bonding in predicting behavior problems, (b) the possible enduring association of childhood neighborhood for adult substance use problems, and (c) whether genetic heritability of alcohol misuse differs by neighborhood deprivation.

Methods: Data are from two studies. The Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) is a Seattle-based longitudinal cohort of 808 that was interviewed 15 times from age 10 to age 39, corresponding to years 1985 to 2014. The SSDP sample is gender balanced, multiethnic, and economically diverse. Self-reports of neighborhood characteristics were assessed throughout the study, and objective measures of neighborhood features (GIS and Census-based) corresponding to residential addresses were included at age 15 and in the adult years. Behavior and substance use problems were assessed in all study waves. The second study utilizes cross-sectional data collected from 2008 to 2010 among 2,130 same sex monozygotic and dizygotic adult twin pairs participating in the Washington State Twin Registry. Participants reported on their alcohol use, and neighborhood-level measures of deprivation were linked to participant residential locations.

Results and Conclusions: Findings from the three studies show that (a) experiences with neighborhood disorganization in adolescence were a robust and consistent predictor across a range of adolescent problem behaviors even after controlling for demographics and multiple indicators of neighborhood- and family-level socioeconomics; (b) neighborhood-level low residential stability in adolescence was a risk factor for some substance use disorder symptoms over 20 years later, at age 39; and (c) in a separate study of twins, neighborhood deprivation in adulthood was associated with more alcohol misuse and may moderate the influence of genetic factors. Together, results support an important role for neighborhood influences in substance use and other behavior problems, and suggest that that role can be broad, persistent, and interact with other individual factors.