This Minority Career Advancement Award provides funds for a study of the structural conditions of communities that contribute to youth behaviors such as dropping out of high school, delinquency, and teenage pregnancy. The study will focus on two cities (Detroit, MI and Phoenix, AR) with high levels of poverty and residential segregation but with distinctive ethnic composition and socioeconomic environments. Neighborhood demographic and organizational variables from the US census combined with information from local schools, juvenile courts, and health departments will form the data for the study. This study will contribute to our understanding of how community characteristics may contribute to the reproduction of the underclass. The Minority Career Advancement Award will also permit the investigator to expand her research in new directions, and it will provide opportunities for several minority doctoral students to participate in the research process.
