Ohio State is in the process of revising websites and program materials to accurately reflect compliance with the law. While this work occurs, language referencing protected class status or other activities prohibited by Ohio Senate Bill 1 may still appear in some places. However, all programs and activities are being administered in compliance with federal and state law.

IPR Seminar: Dr. Christopher Browning, Sociology, Ohio State

Dr. Christopher Browning
January 23, 2018
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
038 Townshend Hall, 1885 Neil Ave

Racial Segregation, Exposure to White Areas, and Perceptions of Safety Among African American Youth

African American youth face a range of challenges in navigating everyday life, such as residence in neighborhoods characterized by higher levels of segregation, poverty, and violence than those of their white counterparts.  Less frequently considered are the effects of exposures beyond the home neighborhoods of African American youth, particularly those requiring navigation of racially and socioeconomically disparate environments. We consider alternative hypotheses drawn from the social isolation and relational ecology approaches to understanding variation in a basic environmental assessment necessary to everyday flourishing for urban adolescents – perceptions of safety.  We employ novel geographically explicit ecological momentary assessment (GEMA) data on moment-to-moment perceptions of safety among a sample of African American youth residing in Columbus, OH.  Findings indicate African American boys experience a declining sense of safety as the racial composition of the immediate environment becomes increasingly white.  This association is only observed for African American boys who reside in high proportion African American neighborhoods, consistent with a relational ecology approach emphasizing the challenges associated with navigating structurally distinct environments for minority youth.