Girls in the 'Hood: The Importance of Feeling Safe

Looks at how adolescent girls benefited from moving out of extremely poor, high-crime neighborhoods into lower poverty areas through the Moving to Opportunity program. Focuses on reduced "female fear" as one reason why girls benefited more than boys

Is Dropping out of High School More Likely after Stressful Life Events?

High school dropout is typically viewed as the result of long-held vulnerabilities such as learning problems. This research brief, by PRC visiting scholars Véronique Dupéré and Eric Dion and PRC faculty research associate Robert Crosnoe and colleagues, shows that recent stressful life events can lead to a student dropping out.Population Research Cente

Stressors and turning points in high school and dropout : a stress process, life course framework

High school dropout is commonly seen as the result of a long-term process of failure and disengagement. As useful as it is, this view has obscured the heterogeneity of pathways leading to dropout. Research suggests, for instance, that some students leave school not as a result of protracted difficulties but in response to situations that emerge late in their schooling careers, such as health problems or severe peer victimization. Conversely, others with a history of early difficulties persevere when their circumstances improve during high school. Thus, an adequate understanding of why and when students drop out requires a consideration of both long-term vulnerabilities and proximal disruptive events and contingencies. The goal of this review is to integrate long-term and immediate determinants of dropout by proposing a stress process, life course model of dropout. This model is also helpful for understanding how the determinants of dropout vary across socioeconomic conditions and geographical and historical contexts

High school dropout in proximal context : the triggering role of stressful life events

Adolescents who drop out of high school experience enduring negative consequences across many domains. Yet, the circumstances triggering their departure are poorly understood. This study examined the precipitating role of recent psychosocial stressors by comparing three groups of Canadian high school students (52% boys; Mage = 16.3 years; N = 545): recent dropouts, matched at-risk students who remain in school, and average students. Results indicate that in comparison with the two other groups, dropouts were over three times more likely to have experienced recent acute stressors rated as severe by independent coders. These stressors occurred across a variety of domains. Considering the circumstances in which youth decide to drop out has implications for future research and for policy and practice

Revisiting the link between depression symptoms and high school dropout : timing of exposure matters

Purpose Recent reviews concluded that past depression symptoms are not independently associated with high school dropout, a conclusion that could induce schools with high dropout rates and limited resources to consider depression screening, prevention, and treatment as low-priority. Even if past symptoms are not associated with dropout, however, it is possible that recent symptoms are. The goal of this study was to examine this hypothesis. Methods In 12 disadvantaged high schools in Montreal (Canada), all students at least 14 years of age were first screened between 2012 and 2015 (Nscreened = 6,773). Students who dropped out of school afterward (according to school records) were then invited for interviews about their mental health in the past year. Also interviewed were matched controls with similar risk profiles but who remained in school, along with average not at-risk schoolmates (Ninterviewed = 545). Interviews were conducted by trained graduate students. Results Almost one dropout out of four had clinically significant depressive symptoms in the 3 months before leaving school. Adolescents with recent symptoms had an odd of dropping out more than twice as high as their peers without such symptoms (adjusted odds ratio = 2.17; 95% confidence interval = 1.14–4.12). In line with previous findings, adolescents who had recovered from earlier symptoms were not particularly at risk. Conclusions These findings suggest that to improve disadvantaged youths' educational outcomes, investments in comprehensive mental health services are needed in schools struggling with high dropout rates, the very places where adolescents with unmet mental health needs tend to concentrate

Neighborhood poverty and early transition to sexual at

This study examined how the link between neighborhood poverty and the timing of sexual initiation varies as a function of age, gender, and background characteristics. A sample of N 5 2,596 predominately White Canadian adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth was used. Sexual initiations occurring between 12 and 15 years old were considered. Results showed that younger adolescent females who lived in poor neighborhoods and who had a history of conduct problems were more likely to report early sexual activity. Peer characteristics partly accounted for this susceptibility. Among adolescent males, no direct neighborhood effects were found, but those who had combined risks at multiple levels appeared more vulnerable. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Moving to Opportunity: Does long-term exposure to 'low-poverty' neighborhoods make a difference for adolescents?

This study re-analyzed data on adolescent health outcomes (N = 1780; M age = 15.15, SD = 2.30) from a 5-year evaluation of the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) Program. The MTO program is a randomized experiment conducted in five cities in the United States (Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York) in which low-income families living in public housing in 'high-poverty' neighborhoods were offered vouchers and assistance to move to 'low-poverty' neighborhoods. The objective was to reexamine program effects as a function of exposure to 'low-poverty' neighborhoods to determine whether beneficial effects reported for girls' mental health and behavior generalized to other outcomes for girls and to boys. As found in previous evaluations, girls in the MTO program group, whose families remained in 'low-poverty' neighborhoods for comparatively long periods (approximately 5 years), had better mental health and engaged in fewer risky behaviors than a matched control sample of girls, whose families stayed in 'high-poverty' neighborhoods. Further, additional benefits for girls were seen in the education domain. Adverse program effects on boys' behavior problems, reported in other MTO research using different methods, were not evident in our analysis. Findings suggest that programs relocating low-income families to 'low-poverty' neighborhoods should provide supports to families and to receiving communities to promote residential stability and social integration.USA Gender Neighborhoods Poverty Social experiment Adolescence Mental health Propensity score analysis

Moving to Opportunity: an Experimental Study of Neighborhood Effects on Mental Health

Objectives. The health consequences of neighborhood poverty are a public health problem. Data were obtained to examine links between neighborhood residence and mental health outcomes. Methods. Moving to Opportunity was a randomized, controlled trial in which families from public housing in high-poverty neighborhoods were moved into private housing in near-poor or nonpoor neighborhoods, with a subset remaining in public housing. At the 3-year follow-up of the New York site, 550 families were reinterviewed. Results. Parents who moved to low-poverty neighborhoods reported significantly less distress than parents who remained in high-poverty neighborhoods. Boys who moved to less poor neighborhoods reported significantly fewer anxious/depressive and dependency problems than did boys who stayed in public housing. Conclusions. This study provides experimental evidence of neighborhood income effects on mental health