Using a Contextual Effects Measurement Approach to Understand the Influence of Community on Individual Behavior

A social organization perspective identifies processes operating in the community that may influence an individual’s behavior. To understand such processes, researchers can apply a contextual effects measurement approach, which is used to assess the influence of group-level effects on lower level outcomes. However, few community studies employ this approach. The purpose of this article is to present and evaluate the merits of the contextual effects measurement approach