TY - JOUR
T1 - Perceived neighborhood characteristics predict severity and emotional response to daily stressors
AU - Scott, Stacey B.
AU - Munoz, Elizabeth
AU - Mogle, Jacqueline A.
AU - Gamaldo, Alyssa A.
AU - Smyth, Joshua M.
AU - Almeida, David M.
AU - Sliwinski, Martin J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [ R03AG050798 to S.B.S., R01AG039409 to M.J.S.]. The funding sources had no role in study design, collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, or decision to submit.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/3
Y1 - 2018/3
N2 - Rationale: Neighborhood characteristics may influence health and well-being outcomes through stressors in daily life. Objectives: This study tested whether a varied set of perceived characteristics of neighborhood (i.e., social cohesion, safety, aesthetic quality, violence) predicted stressor frequency and severity as well as negative emotional responses to stressors. We predicted greater reported cohesion and safety and less violence would be associated with less frequent stressor exposure and severity and less intense negative affect following stressors; we conducted subsequent tests of neighborhood aesthetic quality as a predictor. Methods: Participants (n = 233, age 25–65 years) were residents in a socio-economically, racially, and ethnically diverse zip code in Bronx, New York, most who participated in the Effects of Stress on Cognitive Aging, Physiology and Emotion study between 2012 and 2013. They provided demographic information and neighborhood ratings, then participated in the EMA protocol in which they completed brief smartphone surveys of current negative affect and stressor exposure, severity, and recency, five times daily for 14 days. Results: No coded neighborhood characteristic was related to the frequency of stressors. Individuals who reported greater neighborhood violence, however, rated their stressors as more severe. Individuals rating their neighborhood lower in safety or aesthetic quality, or higher in violence, had greater negative affect following stressors. Conclusion: Even among people living within the same zip code, individual differences in perceptions of neighborhood predict how stressful they appraised stressors in daily life to be and how much negative affect they reported following stressors.
AB - Rationale: Neighborhood characteristics may influence health and well-being outcomes through stressors in daily life. Objectives: This study tested whether a varied set of perceived characteristics of neighborhood (i.e., social cohesion, safety, aesthetic quality, violence) predicted stressor frequency and severity as well as negative emotional responses to stressors. We predicted greater reported cohesion and safety and less violence would be associated with less frequent stressor exposure and severity and less intense negative affect following stressors; we conducted subsequent tests of neighborhood aesthetic quality as a predictor. Methods: Participants (n = 233, age 25–65 years) were residents in a socio-economically, racially, and ethnically diverse zip code in Bronx, New York, most who participated in the Effects of Stress on Cognitive Aging, Physiology and Emotion study between 2012 and 2013. They provided demographic information and neighborhood ratings, then participated in the EMA protocol in which they completed brief smartphone surveys of current negative affect and stressor exposure, severity, and recency, five times daily for 14 days. Results: No coded neighborhood characteristic was related to the frequency of stressors. Individuals who reported greater neighborhood violence, however, rated their stressors as more severe. Individuals rating their neighborhood lower in safety or aesthetic quality, or higher in violence, had greater negative affect following stressors. Conclusion: Even among people living within the same zip code, individual differences in perceptions of neighborhood predict how stressful they appraised stressors in daily life to be and how much negative affect they reported following stressors.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.010
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.010
M3 - Article
C2 - 29191514
AN - SCOPUS:85035198805
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 200
SP - 262
EP - 270
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
ER -