Measuring Neighborhood and School Environments Perceptual and Aggregate Approaches

This paper describes scales measuring perceptions of neighborhood and school quality. The scales are short and easy to administer, and easily understood by respondents. The measure of neighborhood quality (the NegNeb) has high reliability (alpha = .81), correlates with census data, shows sensitivity to change in neighborhood quality, and discriminates among urban neighborhoods. The measure of school quality (the NegEd) correlates to an index of aggregate school problems. Theories posit that the impact of environment on mental health is determined by perception of that environment. A regression model controlling for family and other characteristics showed that perception of neighborhood (as measured by the NegNeb) contributed unique variance to adolescent mental health. Perception of school did not. However, a second regression model showed that perception of school environment contributed unique variance to peer misbehavior, which was the largest predictor of mental health problems in the first equation. In each regression model aggregate measures of neighborhood and school quality contributed less to the model than did perceived measures. Because adolescents' perceptions of their neighborhood and school environments are clearly linked to their mental health and peer environment, researchers interested in effects of neighborhood and school environment should use subjects' perceptions to conceptualize and measure these realities.