Subjective and objective ratings of neighborhood conditions: Do neighborhoods matter to children's health?

Neighborhood research, the body of work exploring the link between the neighborhood context and residents' behaviors, has received growing attention in recent years. Although this literature is rapidly expanding, there is currently no consensus on how researchers should measure the neighborhood space. Many researchers rely on census data that have been shown to be problematic, while others conduct independent observations of neighborhoods and interview residents about their perceptions of neighborhood conditions. Unfortunately, the few studies that incorporate residents' perceptions of neighborhoods generally rely on adult ratings even if the outcome of interest is concerned with children.;As this poses a potentially serious methodological issue in neighborhood research, this dissertation gave voice to children using a mixed methods design. First, ten preadolescent children enrolled in after-school programs in two New York City neighborhoods participated in open-ended interviews and walking tours of their neighborhoods. Qualitative findings revealed that children frequently discussed the following elements: neighborhood quality, safety, social, and physical disorder.;These findings informed the design of a survey assessing children's and parents' perceptions of their neighborhoods and children's mental and physical health. 126 children, aged nine to 13, enrolled in after-school programs in three neighborhoods and 117 parents completed this survey. The children also listed five blocks around their home that constituted their neighborhoods. These blocks were observed by two outside raters and census data were collected at the block group level of aggregation.;Results from the quantitative study phase suggest that children and parents showed some overlap in their perceptions of neighborhood conditions but these subjective ratings did not relate to the neighborhood observations and census data. Subjective ratings of neighborhood safety mediated the relationship between neighborhood disorder and neighborhood quality and child-rated perceptions of neighborhood conditions predicted their ratings of mental health. Neither parents' neighborhood perceptions, neighborhood observations, nor the census data directly related to children's mental health. On the other hand, observed physical disorder and child-rated neighborhood safety predicted physical health. The dissertation supports the hypothesis that subjective perceptions of neighborhood conditions related best to children's health and that children should be actively recognized in research concerning them.