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Protocol - Neighborhood Safety

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Description

The Mujahid et al. (2007) protocol includes three interviewer-administered questions with five-point, Likert-style responses. For each question posed by the interviewer, the respondent reviews the list of responses and chooses the answer that best relates to his or her situation.

Specific Instructions

Although used in the context of a personal interview, the questions and response categories are straightforward and can be adapted to a self-administered format.

Availability

Available

Protocol

Safety

1. I feel safe walking in my neighborhood, day or night.

1[ ]Strongly Agree

2[ ]Agree

3[ ]Neutral (neither agree nor disagree)

4[ ]Disagree

5[ ]Strongly Disagree

2. Violence is not a problem in my neighborhood.

1[ ]Strongly Agree

2[ ]Agree

3[ ]Neutral (neither agree nor disagree)

4[ ]Disagree

5[ ]Strongly Disagree

3. My neighborhood is safe from crime.

1[ ]Strongly Agree

2[ ]Agree

3[ ]Neutral (neither agree nor disagree)

4[ ]Disagree

5[ ]Strongly Disagree

Scoring Instructions

A total score can be obtained by computing the average of the three items. Lower scores indicate more neighborhood safety.

Personnel and Training Required

No specific training is needed if data are collected through a self-administered questionnaire. If interviewers administer the questionnaire, the interviewer must be trained to conduct personal interviews with individuals from the general population and found competent to administer these particular questions (i.e., tested by an expert) at the completion of this training. The interviewer should be trained to prompt respondents further if a "don’t know" response is provided.

Equipment Needs

These questions can be administered in a computerized or noncomputerized format (i.e., paper-and pencil instrument). Computer software is necessary to develop computer-assisted instruments. The interviewer will require a laptop computer or handheld computer to administer or to allow the respondent to self-administer a computer-assisted questionnaire.

Requirements
Requirement CategoryRequired
Major equipment No
Specialized training No
Specialized requirements for biospecimen collection No
Average time of greater than 15 minutes in an unaffected individual No
Mode of Administration

Interviewer-administered questionnaire

Lifestage

Adult

Participants

Adults, aged 18 years and older

Selection Rationale

The Mujahid et al. (2007) scale was selected for its brevity and because it taps into both feelings about safety and presence of crime. This scale has strong psychometric properties, and prior studies have shown that subjective measures of crime and disorder are correlated with their objective counterparts (Elo et al., 2009). Additionally, objective crime measures (e.g., geocoded police department records, national crime statistics at the neighborhood level) are not uniformly available across the United States.

Language

Chinese, English, Other languages available at source

Standards
StandardNameIDSource
Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) Neighborhood safety proto 63028-5 LOINC
caDSR Form PhenX PX210901 - Neighborhood Safety 6197287 caDSR Form
Derived Variables

None

Process and Review



The Expert Review Panel #2 (ERP 2) reviewed the measures in the Demographics, Environmental Exposures, and Social Environments domains.

Guidance from ERP 2 includes:

• Revised descriptions of the measure

Back-compatible: no changes to Data Dictionary

Previous version in Toolkit archive (link)

Protocol Name from Source

Mujahid, M. S., et al, Assessing the measurement properties of neighborhood scales: From psychometrics to ecometrics. AM J EPIDEMIOL, 2007

Source

Mujahid, M. S., Diez Roux, A. V., Morenoff, J. D., & Raghunathan, T. (2007). Assessing the measurement properties of neighborhood scales: From psychometrics to ecometrics. American Journal of Epidemiology, 165, 858-867.

General References

Elo, I. T., Mykyta, L., Margolis, R., & Culhane, J. F. (2009). Perceptions of neighborhood disorder: The role of individual and neighborhood characteristics. Social Science Quarterly, 90, 1039-1422.

Morenoff, J. (2003). Neighborhood mechanisms and the spatial dynamics of birth weight. American Journal of Sociology, 108, 976-1017.

Protocol ID

210901

Variables
Export Variables
Variable Name Variable IDVariable DescriptiondbGaP Mapping
PX210901_Feel_Safe_Walking_Neighborhood
PX210901010000 I feel safe walking in my neighborhood, day more
or night. show less
Variable Mapping
PX210901_Neighborhood_Safe_From_Crime
PX210901030000 My neighborhood is safe from crime. Variable Mapping
PX210901_Neighborhood_Violence
PX210901020000 Violence is not a problem in my neighborhood. Variable Mapping
Social Environments
Measure Name

Neighborhood Safety

Release Date

October 8, 2010

Definition

This measure is a questionnaire to assess the respondent’s perceptions about safety and crime in their neighborhoods.

Purpose

This measure is used to evaluate a respondent’s feelings toward neighborhood-level crime and safety. Studies show that neighborhood safety is relevant to a range of health outcomes, such as birth weight (Morenoff, 2003).

Keywords

Social environments, neighborhood safety, violence, community

Measure Protocols
Protocol ID Protocol Name
210901 Neighborhood Safety
Publications

McCurry, K., et al. (2024) Data-driven, generalizable prediction of adolescent sleep disturbances in the multisite Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Sleep. 2024 June; 47(6). doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsae048

Gonzalez, R., et al. (2021) An update on the assessment of culture and environment in the ABCD Study (R): Emerging literature and protocol updates over three measurement waves. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 2021 December; 52: 101021. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.101021

Wade, N. E., et al. (2021) Risk factors associated with curiosity about alcohol use in the ABCD cohort. Alcohol. 2021 May; 92: 11-19. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2021.01.002

Moore, T. M., et al. (2020) Development of a scale battery for rapid assessment of risk and resilience. Psychiatry Research. 2020 June; 288: 10. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112996

Zhang, H., et al. (2020) Parental and social factors in relation to child psychopathology, behavior, and cognitive function. Translational Psychiatry. 2020 February; 10(1): Article number: 80. doi: 10.1038/s41398-020-0761-6

Zucker, R. A, et al. (2018) Assessment of culture and environment in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study: Rationale, description of measures, and early data. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2018 August; 32: 107-120. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.03.004

Ortiz, A. P., et al. (2015) Methods in HPV Surveillance: Experiences from a Population-Based Study of HPV Infection among Women in the San Juan Metropolitan Area of Puerto Rico. P R Health Sci J. 2015 September; 34(3): 117-27.