The influence of neighborhood quality on adolescents' educational values and school effort

Interview data from a sample of 262 poor African American single mothers and their 7th- and 8th-grade children were used to investigate the relations between neighborhood conditions and adolescents' educational values and school effort. The model tested incorporates both subjective and objective assessments of neighborhood quality and controls for several family- and school-related constructs. United States Census data on household incomes served as an objective measure of neighborhood quality. In the full sample, the findings revealed that the percentage of middle-class neighbors and self-perceived academic abilities were significantly linked to adolescents' educational values, which were, in turn, related to school effort. Several theories identifying the processes by which neighborhood characteristics influence adolescents' educational values are discussed. Gender differences emerged when the model was tested separately for females and males. For African American females, but not for adolescent males, neighborhood conditions were associated with educational values.