Perceptions as the crucial link? The mediating role of neighborhood perceptions in the relationship between the neighborhood context and neighborhood cohesion.

This study examines the effects of neighborhood racial in-group size, economic deprivation and the prevalence of crime on neighborhood cohesion among U.S. whites. We explore to what extent residents' perceptions of their neighborhood mediate these macro-micro relationships. We use a recent individual-level data set, the American Social Fabric Study (2012/2013), enriched with contextual-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau (2010) and employ multi-level structural equation models. We show that the racial in-group size is positively related to neighborhood cohesion and that neighborhood cohesion is lower in communities with a high crime rate. Individuals' perceptions of the racial in-group size partly mediate the relationship between the objective racial in-group size and neighborhood cohesion. Residents' perceptions of unsafety from crime also appear to be a mediating factor, not only for the objective crime rate but also for the objective racial in-group size. This is in line with our idea that racial stereotypes link racial minorities to crime whereby neighborhoods with a large non-white population are perceived to be more unsafe. Residents of the same neighborhood differ in how they perceive the degree of economic decay of the neighborhood and this causes them to evaluate neighborhood cohesion differently, however perceptions of neighborhood economic decay do not explain the link between the objective neighborhood context and neighborhood cohesion

Perceptions as the crucial link? The mediating role of neighborhood perceptions in the relationship between the neighborhood context and neighborhood cohesion.

This study examines the effects of neighborhood racial in-group size, economic deprivation and the prevalence of crime on neighborhood cohesion among U.S. whites. We explore to what extent residents' perceptions of their neighborhood mediate these macro-micro relationships. We use a recent individual-level data set, the American Social Fabric Study (2012/2013), enriched with contextual-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau (2010) and employ multi-level structural equation models. We show that the racial in-group size is positively related to neighborhood cohesion and that neighborhood cohesion is lower in communities with a high crime rate. Individuals' perceptions of the racial in-group size partly mediate the relationship between the objective racial in-group size and neighborhood cohesion. Residents' perceptions of unsafety from crime also appear to be a mediating factor, not only for the objective crime rate but also for the objective racial in-group size. This is in line with our idea that racial stereotypes link racial minorities to crime whereby neighborhoods with a large non-white population are perceived to be more unsafe. Residents of the same neighborhood differ in how they perceive the degree of economic decay of the neighborhood and this causes them to evaluate neighborhood cohesion differently, however perceptions of neighborhood economic decay do not explain the link between the objective neighborhood context and neighborhood cohesion

Size is in the eye of the beholder: How differences between neighbourhoods and individuals explain variation in estimations of the ethnic out-group size in the neighbourhood

In this paper we shed light on the various ways in which native Dutch estimate the size of the ethnic minority population in their neighbourhood. We formulate hypotheses on how characteristics of the neighbourhood (i.e. objective group sizes, ethnic segregation, economic deprivation and crime), of surrounding neighbourhoods and experiences of interethnic contact and feelings of ethnic threat shape perceptions of the ethnic outgroup size. We employ individual-level data from the 1Vandaag Opinion Panel enriched with contextual-level data from Statistics Netherlands (24,538 respondents in 3113 neighbourhoods). Great variation in residents’ perceptions of the ethnic outgroup size exists both between neighbourhoods and within neighbourhoods. We demonstrate that native Dutch are more likely to overestimate the size of the non-Western minority population than the size of the Western minority population. Larger ethnic outgroup sizes in surrounding neighbourhoods are associated with the sense that one's own neighbourhood also contains more minority residents. In economically deprived and high crime neighbourhoods, residents are more likely to overestimate the size of the ethnic outgroup. Furthermore, people with more interethnic contact and people who experience more ethnic threat provide higher estimations and are more likely to overestimate the ethnic outgroup size in their neighbourhood