Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Living In The ‘Hood Affects Risky Behaviors Among Latino And African American Youth, Anna Maria Santiago, Eun Lye Lee, Jessica Lee Lucero, Rebecca Wiersma

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Using data from a natural experiment in Denver, we investigate whether the initiation of running away from home, aggressive or violent behavior, and marijuana use during adolescence are statistically related to the neighborhood contexts in which low-income Latino and African American youth were raised. Our analysis is based on retrospective child, caregiver, household, and neighborhood data for a sample of approximately 850 Latino and African American youth whose families were quasi-randomly assigned to public housing operated by the Denver (CO) Housing Authority during part of their childhood. We used Cox PH models and accelerated failure time models to estimate ethnic …