RESOLUCIÓN Nº 1410-2006-JNE Expediente Nº 1186-2006

fects

Drawing on the assumptions formulated by the neighbourhood E↵ects theory (Jencks and Mayer [95], 1990), the Life Course perspective (Elder [54], 1998) and the Ecological Systems theory (Bronfenbrenner [23], 1979) this study puts forward the Compositional Framework of neighbourhood e↵ects. Young people’s development is informed by the framework of linked lives of the life course theory and the multiple spheres of influence of the ecological systems theory. Assumptions about specific pathways linking neigh- bourhood e↵ects to the experience of NEET are informed by the neighbourhood e↵ects

theory. The Compositional Framework (Graph 2) introduces four pathways that link neighbourhood deprivation to educational and vocational transitions of young people. The goal of the framework is to use the di↵erent theories discussed in the previous sec- tions to reformulate strategies for investigating pathways through which neighbourhood e↵ects are mediated to young people and a↵ect their employment outcomes.

The theoretical models that have been proposed in the literature to explain how neigh- bourhoods influence young people do not explicitly determine how neighbourhoods a↵ect young people in terms of specific mediators or pathways. The models do not specify how the actual processes operate but they provide a basis for researchers to hy- pothesize how mechanisms operate. The Compositional Framework of neighbourhood E↵ects (see Figure 3.2: ‘Hypothesized pathways of neighbourhood e↵ects’) underlies the assumption that neighbourhood characteristics act on young people’s development by specifying four levels of influence on young people’s development apart from neigh- bourhoods: a) individual characteristics and attitudes; b) parental characteristics and relationships; c) school experiences and attitudes to schooling, and; d) d social epi- demics (peer group) that act as pathways mediating the direct neighbourhood influ- ence on transition outcomes. The model starts with the premise that neighbourhoods are likely to a↵ect young people directly and indirectly as they operate through four proximal pathways. The variables selected for this schema will be discussed in Section 6.6 and the empirical implementation will take place in Chapters 6 and 7.

Neighbourhood+deprivation+–+Crime+Score+ + + + ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Individual!level!mediators! Family!level!mediators! School!experiences!and!

attitudes!to!schooling!! Social!networks!mediators! • Ethnicity!of!young!person! • Educational!attainment! • Parental!education! • Benefits!claimants! • Family!demographics! • Parental!aspirations!for! young!people! • Parental!monitoring! • Young!person’s!attitudes! to!schooling! • Feelings!about! educational!attainment! • Exclusion!from!youth! peer!network! • AntiBsocial!behaviour! Outcomes:+Young+people+not+in+education,+employment+or+training+

The ecological framework, the di↵erent theories employed to construct it and the links with NEET status are described below:

Neighbourhood deprivation: Understanding environmental conditions such as so- cial disorder and crime in neighbourhoods is fundamental to understanding neighbour- hood e↵ects. Neighbourhood Crime is measured by the Crime Score of the general Index of Multiple Deprivation measured at small area level. The neighbourhood context is understood to refer to the Exosystem in the Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbren- ner [23], 1979), following the assumption that deprivation in the exosystem can a↵ect experiences in the immediate setting of the individual, and provides a context where in the person lives but does not have any active role. Neighbourhood crime is also linked to the epidemic model which assumes that antisocial behaviour is copied and spread to residents of a community. Neighbourhood crime develops as a result of concentrated disadvantage, structural disorder, high unemployment and financial difficulty and is considered a significant factor in explaining young people’s outcomes.

Living in a high Crime area has direct e↵ects on employment opportunities. Limited availability of choices predicts difficulties in finding employment in the area of residence (Bynner et al [27], 1997) while crime fosters a culture where attachment to labour market is weakened (Wilson, 2006) thus deterring young people from trying to achieve educational goals and to participate in the labour market. Besides having an e↵ect on young peoples employment opportunities, crime also influences indirectly educational and employment outcomes. Young people who come from areas with higher levels of deprivation are more likely not to go to university (Crawford et al [42], 2011) which limits their employment opportunities. This can be explained through the e↵ect a deprived area has on parental practices, schools and interactions with peer group. This research is going to extend existing literature by testing the link between area crime and NEET status through the pathways which are specified below.

vironmental influences on individual characteristics and educational and occupational outcomes. The individual is considered as the recipient in the theoretical framework proposed by Jencks and Mayer. The individual has an active role in constructing expe- riences in the Microsystem of the Ecological Systems Theory. Additionally it relates to the human agency element of the Life Course approach as it describes decision making processes regardless of the constraints imposed by the social and cultural environment of a deprived neighbourhood.

The decision making processes and behaviour of young people in poor neighbourhoods with high crime and deprivation are very di↵erent compared to young people in more a✏uent areas. The presence of crime in young people’s lives on a daily basis deter- mines their sense of identity, social relations and cultural setting. When social relations and cultural settings are influenced by violence and crime it is easy for young people to deviate from socially accepted norms and behaviours. Poverty, unemployment, individ- ual inequalities and limited opportunity contexts result in low occupational aspirations among young people (Furlong et al [66], 1996). Educational attainment is not appre- ciated and thus living in a deprived neighbourhood is associated with low educational attainment (Gibbons [72], 2002; Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn [110], 2000). Only a small portion of young people from low socio-economic backgrounds with high aspi- rations achieve to continue in higher education (Wolf [202], 2011). Low educational attainment increases the likelihood of entry in NEET status ((Britton et al [22], 2011; Rennison et al [148], 2006; Macmillan et al [120], 2012; Crawford et al [42], 2011; Bynner and Parsons [29], 2002).

Parental Characteristics and Relationships: This pathway maintains parallels a) with the microsystem as experiences in the family account for the child’s immediate environment and the Mesosystem as the interaction between the structures of the mi- crosystem, b) the concept of linked lives in relation to links between family members and c) the collective socialization model particularly in the areas of parental control and

monitoring and the presence of routines in the family. The di↵erent settings of young peoples lives interact. The interaction of various settings may moderate the e↵ect of crime deprivation on parental behaviours (Bronfenbrenner [23], 1979; Furstenberg et al. [67], 1993).

Concentrated poverty increases social stratification and social problems in disadvan- taged communities such as single parent families and weakened family relations (Hard- ing [82], 2010). An extension of disrupted family relations is parental behaviour which can be influenced by antisocial behaviour and crime when anomie is the social norm. For example living in a high crime area could invoke a range of parenting problems such as for example child abuse (Shaw and McKay [171], 1942) or less parental involvement (Wilson [199], 2012). Parents in deprived areas often follow parenting strategies such as monitoring or supervision to protect their children from potential neighbourhood dangers (Klebanov et al [105], 1994; Simons et al [172], 1996; Willis [196], 1977) and restricted social relations (Atkinson and Kintrea 2001, Musterd et al 2003). Parenting practices, in turn, are assumed to influence young peoples transitions. The parents of young people who are NEET were found to be less likely to be involved in education and career oriented activities of their children (Rennison [148], 2006) or to provide advice to their children (Macmillan and Britton [120], 2012) than parents of young people in education or work. Parental aspirations remain high since the majority young people experiencing NEET status had parents who wanted their children to continue in full time education, although the young people did not achieve educationally (Wolf [202], 2011).

School experiences and attitudes to schooling: This pathway is linked to the Microsystem because teachers have direct interaction and influence on young people and to the Mesosystem providing a connection between the young persons area and school level characteristics. This pathway overlaps to some extent to the institutional resource model since schools are institutional resources that could mediate the associ-

ation between neighbourhood deprivation and educational and employment outcomes (Kauppinen [100], 2008). Schools are a↵ected by the social and economic character- istics of young people and influence career destinations. Access to institutions is a pathway that mediates neighbourhood characteristics. Leventhal and Brooks-Gunns [110] (2000) argue that institutional resources such as schools and libraries o↵er parents the opportunity to stimulate young people and thus to influence educational outcomes. Additionally, as the collective socialisation model posits, parents can adopt monitor- ing role in these institutions to prevent negative behaviour of young people. Unlike well organized communities though, monitoring and control levels are very low in poor neighbourhoods. As social organization theory posits, poor neighbourhoods fail to control public behaviour.

The community context of a poor neighbourhood can shape the resources available to young people, the educational experiences and attitudes to schooling. Negative experiences of young people with their teachers and disruption caused by students in the classroom have a negative impact on young people engaging in further education (Spielhofer [180], 2009). Disa↵ection with school influences outcomes (Macmillan and Britton [120], 2012) and lack or insufficient advice from career teachers are associated with entry to NEET status (Rennison et al. [148], 2006). NEET status was also associated with characteristics such as proneness to being bullied (Stone et al. [183], 2009); truancy and school exclusion (Spielhofer [180], 2009; Coles et al. [38], 2002); and negative attitudes to schooling (Ra↵e [145], 2003).

Social Epidemics: This pathway is linked to the Microsystem (Bronfenbrenner [23], 1979) because the peer group belongs to the immediate environment of a child and to the Mesosystem because it refers to the connection between the child’s neighbourhood and its peer group. The pathway relates to the Contagion/Epidemic model (Jencks and Mayer [95], 1990) in terms of how behaviour of neighbours is copied and spread on residents in a community. Finally it relates to the Relative Deprivation theory since

residents judge their position in relation to the position of their neighbours and peer group.

A potential pathway that links area deprivation and young peoples outcomes is that deprived neighbourhoods lack the structure of a socially organized society and that negative behaviours spread like epidemics. Simons et al [172] (1996) found that living in a disadvantaged community increases the risk of behaviour problems and affiliation with deviant peers for young boys because of the inability of the community to supervise and control teenage peer groups. Lack of supervision and sparse local friendship networks in a deprived community can explain problematic behaviour in groups of young people (Sampson and Groves [162], 1989). Problematic behaviour such as criminal activity and substance use (Willis [196], 1977) can be copied by young people in deprived areas. In turn, problematic peer group behaviour can a↵ect school behaviour and NEET status (Spielhofer [180], 2009; Stone et [183], 2000). Young people in the NEET group are more likely to say they have not received support from informal sources of advice such as their peer group (Rennison et al [148], 2006).

Another potential pathway that peer group influence can mediate neighbourhood char- acteristics on young people is through social isolation. People who live in deprived areas are more socially excluded compared to people in a✏uent areas and therefore have limited choice of friends and role models. As Garbarino [70] (1982) puts it, rich people can a↵ord a weak neighbourhood better than poor people, who rely solely on the social resources of their neighbourhood. As a result, a poor neighbourhood becomes an influential social space for its residents. Young people in poor areas seek friendship to people in their community and form strong bonds with a restricted peer group thus allowing only local socialisation which has a negative e↵ect on schooling and future employment aspirations. Socially excluded individuals can only observe and copy the behaviour of people in their community. Young people who are cut o↵ from main- stream society, lack opportunities for development and positive role models develop

sub-cultural norms and values which lead them to reject education and employment. The epidemic theory (Jencks and Mayer [95], 1990) holds that the behaviour of adults and peers in a community such as crime and interaction with neighbours (Jamieson et al. [92], 2008) can be learned and copied by young people. Young people who live in areas with high crime rates have higher contact with the criminal justice system and the police even if they are not involved in criminal activities. These contacts can leave young people feeling that the police treats their peers and neighbours with violence and lack of respect. These feelings are often complemented by feelings of insecurity and mistrust to the police who cannot provide safety in their area of residence. Such feelings can produce negative attitudes to the criminal justice institution which can eventually spread to other institutions such as for example schools.

This section reviewed the pathways considered to mediate neighbourhood deprivation e↵ects on young peoples educational and employment outcomes. The final section of this chapter presents the research hypothesis and the research questions that are going to be investigated in this thesis employing the Compositional Model of Neighbourhood E↵ects and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England.