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Why, even in the same high-crime neighborhoods, do robbery, drug dealing, and assault occur much more frequently on some blocks than on others? One popular theory is that a weak sense of community among neighbors can create conditions more hospitable for criminals, and another proposes that neighborhood disorder—such as broken windows and boarded-up buildings—makes crime more likely. But in his innovative new study, Peter K. B. St. Jean argues that we cannot fully understand the impact of these factors without considering that, because urban space is unevenly developed, different kinds of crimes occur most often in locations that offer their perpetrators specific advantages. Drawing on Chicago Police Department statistics and extensive interviews with both law-abiding citizens and criminals in one of the city’s highest-crime areas, St. Jean demonstrates that drug dealers and robbers, for example, are primarily attracted to locations with businesses like liquor stores, fast food restaurants, and check-cashing outlets. By accounting for these important factors of spatial positioning, he expands upon previous research to provide the most comprehensive explanation available of why crime occurs where it does.

Like a sequel to the prescient warnings of urbanist Jane Jacobs, Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove reveals the disturbing outcome of decades of urban renewal projects to communities of color. For those whose homes and neighborhoods were bulldozed, the urban modernization projects that swept America starting in 1949 were nothing short of an assault. Vibrant city blocks--places rich in culture--were torn apart by freeways and other invasive development, blatantly devastating the lives of poor residents. Fullilove passionately describes the profound traumatic stress--the \"root shock\"--that results when a neighborhood is demolished. She estimates that federal and state urban renewal programs, spearheaded by business and real estate interests, destroyed 1,600 African American districts in cities across the United States. But urban renewal didn't just disrupt black communities: the anger it caused led to riots that sent whites fleeing for the suburbs, stripping them of their sense of place as well. It also left big gashes in the centers of cities that are only now slowly being repaired. Focusing on the Hill District of Pittsburgh, the Central Ward in Newark, and the small Virginia city of Roanoke, Dr. Fullilove argues powerfully against policies of displacement. Understanding the damage caused by root shock is crucial to coping with its human toll and helping cities become whole.

Wright uses data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to examine the effects of neighborhood structural characteristics and intervening social mechanisms of collective efficacy, social ties, culture, and disorder on intimate partner violence victimization among females. She finds that partner violence is not solely an individual-level phenomenon and that the mechanisms identified by social disorganization theory appear to explain neighborhood influences on intimate partner violence. In particular, neighborhood concentrated immigration, collective efficacy, social ties and satisfaction with police reduce violence between partners while concentrated disadvantage, legal cynicism, and physical disorder increase such violence. She demonstrates that social disorganization theory can be applied to non-street forms of violence, such as intimate partner violence.

This timely and thought-provoking book explores children's lives in modern cities. At a time of intense debate about the quality of life in cities, this book examines how they can become good places for children to live in. Through contributions from childhood experts in Europe, Australia and America, the book shows the importance of studying children's lives in cities in a comparative and generational perspective. It also contains fascinating accounts of city living from children themselves, and offers practical design solutions. The authors consider the importance of the city as a social, material and cultural place for children, and explore the connections and boundaries between home, neighbourhood, community and city. Throughout, they stress the importance of engaging with how children see their city in order to reform it within a child-sensitive framework. This book is invaluable reading for students and academics in the field of anthropology, sociology, social policy and education. It will also be of interest to those working in the field of architecture, urban planning and design. 'This is a well-written and well-edited reader which deserves to be widely read, not only by students and researchers, but also by people working with children and/or the urban environment such as teachers, architects and planners ... it draws a colourful and diverse picture of children's urban realities regarding home, neighbourhood and community.' - Housing Studies 'A rich and varied collection of chapters, from many contrasted settings. The field is alive and well, and is managing to combine theoretical rigour and methodological ingenuity with a passionate advocacy for the rights of the child in urban society.' - Children & Society

Like a sequel to the prescient warnings of urbanist Jane Jacobs, Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove reveals the disturbing outcome of decades of urban renewal projects to communities of color. For those whose homes and neighborhoods were bulldozed, the urban modernization projects that swept America starting in 1949 were nothing short of an assault. Vibrant city blocks-places rich in culture-were torn apart by freeways and other invasive development, blatantly devastating the lives of poor residents. Fullilove passionately describes the profound traumatic stress-the \"root shock\"-that results when a neighborhood is demolished. She estimates that federal and state urban renewal programs, spearheaded by business and real estate interests, destroyed 1,600 African American districts in cities across the United States. But urban renewal didn't just disrupt black communities: the anger it caused led to riots that sent whites fleeing for the suburbs, stripping them of their sense of place as well. It also left big gashes in the centers of cities that are only now slowly being repaired. Focusing on the Hill District of Pittsburgh, the Central Ward in Newark, and the small Virginia city of Roanoke, Dr. Fullilove argues powerfully against policies of displacement. Understanding the damage caused by root shock is crucial to coping with its human toll and helping cities become whole.

One in six people of reproductive age experience infertility in their lifetime. Infertility can have significant impacts on mental health. Psychological distress is a broad term encompassing emotional suffering and mental health discomfort that can include symptoms of anxiety and depression but is not limited to these conditions. We investigated the prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress and their associated risk factors among women of reproductive age with delayed conception. A total of 1530 women were recruited from community settings in Northern India. Quantitative data were collected using a 4-item Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) which is an ultra-brief self-report questionnaire consisting of a 2-item depression scale (PHQ-2) and a 2-item anxiety scale (generalized anxiety depression-2). Data were collected between July 2020 and August 2021. Descriptive analysis was conducted to summarise the characteristics and prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress. Logistic regression was used to identify risk factors for psychological distress. We obtained responses from all 1,530 women using these scales. Over half (54.31%) of participants had psychological distress, of whom 38.10% were experiencing mild distress, 10.59% moderate distress, and 5.62% severe distress. Additionally,16.07% of participants reported symptoms of anxiety and 20% reported symptoms of depression. Factors associated with psychological distress were: (i) a higher total number of children that women intended to have in their lifetime, (ii) longer duration of trying to get pregnant (> 18 months), (iii) continuous effort trying to achieve pregnancy, (iv) women's perception that conception is taking long, (v) social isolation, (vi) being emotionally or verbally abused by husband and family members, and (vii) having other co-morbidities such as hypertension, irregular menstrual cycles, irregular bleeding between regular cycles, abnormal vaginal discharge or pain during sex. This study demonstrates the high mental health burden faced by women with delayed conception in low- to mid-socioeconomic neighbourhoods of North India including high levels of anxiety and depression. To better support individuals and couples achieve their reproductive goals, we advocate for the integration of psychosocial interventions to improve mental health outcomes and promote the well-being of those facing delays in achieving pregnancy. Specifically, addressing social isolation, fostering supportive networks, combating violence towards women, and incorporating fertility counselling and group-based psychosocial interventions within community and healthcare settings are needed to alleviate mental health symptoms among women who have difficulties in conceiving. However, the successful implementation of these recommendations may be challenged by the availability of the state's healthcare resources, necessitating tailored strategies with contextual adaptations.

Existing evidence on associations between exposure to air pollution and psychological distress from middle to older age is limited by consideration of short exposure periods, poor historical covariates, exposures and outcomes, and cross-sectional study designs. We aimed to examine this association over a 26-year period between ages 43 and 69. We utilised data from the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development Study (the 1946 British birth cohort). Land-use regression models estimated exposure to specific air pollutants using household addresses for 1991 (NO2), 2001 (PM10, NO2), and 2010 (NO2, NOx, PM10, PM2.5, PMcoarse, PM2.5abs). These were linked to the closest data collection wave at ages 43, 53 and 60-64, respectively. Psychological distress was assessed through the 28-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), at ages 53, 60-64 and 69. Associations between each of the pollutants with psychological distress were analysed using generalised linear mixed models, adjusted for pollution exposure before age 43, assigned sex, social class, smoking status, neighbourhood deprivation, and previous mental health problems. We also examined effect modification by social class. At age 69, 2125 participants completed the GHQ-28. In fully adjusted models, higher NO2 exposure was associated with higher GHQ-28 scores across a 26-year period (β=0.023, 95%CI:0.005, 0.040 per interquartile range increase in exposure), whereas higher exposure to PM10 was associated with lower GHQ-28 scores across a 16-year period (β=-0.021, 95%CI:-0.037, -0.006). There was no evidence of associations between exposure to other pollutants at age 60-64 and GHQ-28 at age 69. We found no effect modification by social class. In this cohort there was some evidence of an association between higher cumulative exposure to NO2 and higher psychological distress, but mixed associations with other exposures. Policies to reduce pollutant exposure may help improve psychological symptoms in middle to late adulthood.

Background Quality of life (QOL) is an important component in assessing people’s health. Environmental quality can influence people’s QOL in the physical health, psychological, social relationships and environment domains. QOL in the four domains, overall QOL and general heath of residents living in the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong were assessed. The association between satisfaction with the neighborhood environment and QOL, and health-related behaviors which mediated the effect were investigated. Methods A sample of 317 residents completed a questionnaire which comprised the WHOQOL-BREF (Hong Kong version) to assess QOL, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) to study physical activities, and questions on satisfaction with the neighborhood environment, health-related behaviors and socio-demographics. One-way ANOVA and linear regression were used to study the associations between environmental satisfaction and QOL in the four domains, overall QOL and general health, followed by assessing the relationships between environmental satisfaction and the potential health-related behavior mediators with regression tests. Mediation analysis was conducted using multiple linear regressions to study the effects of environmental satisfaction on QOL in the four domains, overall QOL and general health, as well as the potential mediating roles played by various health-related behaviors. A P -value of < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results The residents had a relatively higher physical health mean score of 70.83 ± 12.69, and a lower environmental mean score of 61.98 ± 13.76. Moderate satisfaction with the neighborhood environment had a significant relationship with QOL in the psychological domain (β = 0.170, P  = 0.006), however, this effect was partially mediated by the non-smoking behavior of the residents (β = 0.143, P  = 0.022). Conclusions Our residents had lower QOL in the physical health and psychological domains but similar QOL in the social relationships and environmental domains compared to other countries. Only QOL in the psychological domain could be predicted by the satisfaction with the neighborhood environment, and non-smoking status was a partial mediator of the effect of moderate environmental satisfaction on QOL in the psychological domain. Refrain from smoking seems to be able to lower the influence of neighborhood environment on people’s QOL in the psychological domain to a certain extent.

Background Parenting is both a complex and stressful endeavor, so parents sometimes experience parenting burnout. The main objective of this study was to provide an overview of factors related to general parental burnout (PB) among parents with at least one child based on the Ecological Systems Theory (EST). Methods PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO, CNKI and WanFang were systematically searched for studies published from 2010 to July 2023 for peer-reviewed articles using keywords extracted from Medical Subject Headings such as “parenting”, “parental”, “burnout”, “psychological burnout”, “burn-out syndrome”. Studies were included if they described associations between factors and PB among parents of children aged 0-18 years old in the general population, and published in an English or Chinese language peer-reviewed journal. The Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Designs (QATSDD) was employed to assess the risk of bias of included studies. Results Of 2037 articles, 26 articles met the inclusion criteria. Based on the Ecological Systems Theory (EST), we found that microsystem-individual factors such as gender, educational level, income, parental personality, internalization of maternal parental motivation, unmitigated communion, self-compassion and concern for others, alexithymia, anxiety and depressive symptoms, parental perfectionism, resilience, low self-esteem and high need for control, mother's attachment style were identified as being associated with parenting burnout. Mesosystem-interpersonal factors involve parent-child relationship and marital satisfaction. The exosystem-organizational or community factors include the number of children in the household, neighborhood and the number of hours spent with children, child's illness, child's behavior problems and social support. The macrosystem-society/policy or culture factors are mainly personal values and cultural values. Conclusions This systematic review found several factors that have been investigated in relation to PB. However, the majority of the factors were reported by one or two studies often implementing a cross-sectional design. Nevertheless, we still recommend that health policymakers and administrators relieve parenting burnout among parents with children by adjusting these modifiable factors.