Lizabeth A. Crawford

Relative deprivation and psychological well-being among residents of public housing targeted for participation in a self-sufficiency intervention

Abstract Data for this analysis, linking perceived deprivation and psychological well-being, were from a needs assessment administered to African-American residents of public housing selected as potential participants in a self-sufficiency intervention (n = 77). Regression analyses indicated that the belief that one is well off economically relative to others was associated with optimism about the future, hostility, and a negative self-image. Although these findings are counterintuitive, they are readily interpretable within the context of the literature on status striving and social mobility among groups with limited opportunities. Future research is needed to clarify the nature of the relationships between these variables and their practical implications in an era of national welfare reform.

Routine Activities and Delinquency: The Significance of Bonds to Society and Peer Context

This article extends prior research on routine activities and youth deviance by focusing on a broader range of routine activity patterns (RAPs) and on how their effects are conditioned by bonds to society and peer context. As hypothesized, the RAPs with the most consistent effects on delinquency were those lowest, or highest, in both structure and visibility. However, the relationship between school-related activities and delinquency was complex and varied across levels of the moderators in unexpected ways, given the structure and visibility of this RAP. Other RAPs, including unstructured peer interaction, affected delinquency independent of adolescents’ social relations, suggesting that neither social bonding nor external social control, via peer group norms, shapes the effects of situationally based opportunities for deviance on adolescents’ behaviors in a consistent manner.