Culmination of My Personal and Professional Interests

¶ … culmination of my personal and professional interests in contributing to the growing body of literature on the impact of poverty on child development. The specific focus of the research is on disadvantaged inner-city youth. Research has consistently revealed connections between environmental and situational factors and child outcomes. The result is a cluster effect, in which various causes lead to various effects.

Pebly & Sastry (2003) categorize the mechanisms of relative social organization vs. disorganization in terms of the presence of local institutions for children and their families; the level of social organization and interaction between members of the community; the normative environment; and labor and marriage markets. My currently proposed research considers each of these dimensions, with an ultimate goal of suggesting effective interventions and solutions.

Gap

Although there is a wealth of literature on the subject, there are also many gaps I hope to fill. A primary gap in the research is the lack of identification of which neighborhood conditions are causally related to child outcomes, and exactly how and why neighborhood effects account for children's outcomes (Jencks and Mayer, 1990). Moreover, Pebly & Sastry (2003) identified several mechanisms but it is as yet unknown which are pivotal to child outcomes, and why. The gap has led to a lack of effective interventions or social programs.

Problem

Poverty is a mental and physical health hazard, leading to a range of risky behaviors and poor child outcomes (Currie, 2007). The behaviors defined as risky range from drug abuse and delinquency at school, to teen pregnancy and criminal behavior. The lack of effective social services to address persistent and chronic poverty has led to stagnancy in social work and social justice. It is a clear and identifiable problem that there are no effective programs because few are rooted in evidence directly addressing causal variables. A gap in the literature has led to a problem developing effective evidence-based social justice intervention programs.

Purpose

The overall purpose of this is to determine which environmental factors create the biggest developmental challenge for children in at risk communities. Identifying the causal factors should inform best practices for intervention. The proposed research will add to the literature by addressing the knowledge gap regarding the causality of neighborhood effects and child outcomes. The practical application of the current proposed research is to influence policymaking and policy implementation with regard to allocation of resources to social problems. It is not enough to know that poverty is a problem; what matters most is proactive solutions.

Method and design

This study will be conducted using multiple case studies in a qualitative research design. Methods will include interviews and surveys. The results will be evaluated according to the cluster model suggested by Pebly & Sastry (2003), in which there are four primary causal categories. The first is the presence of local institutions for children and their families. This will require an observational analysis of each community, as well as interviews of how residents perceive those programs, and their level of use and accessibility. The second variable is the level of social organization and interaction between members of the community. This will be measured primarily through interviews but also through an inclusion of formal social organizations like clubs and churches. Third, the interviews will address the normative environment via interviews and case studies. Finally the evaluation of labor and marriage markets will be ascertained in the gathering of data in the case study process. The currently proposed research considers each of these four dimensions as potential causal variables in an exploratory design, with an ultimate goal of suggesting effective interventions and solutions.

RQs/Hypotheses