Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The association of African Americans’ perceptions of neighborhood crime and drugs with mental illness

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Many African Americans are socioeconomically disadvantaged and live in neighborhoods containing chronic sources of stress. Although environmental stressors can contribute to the development of mental illness, there is a paucity of national studies examining the association of neighborhood crime and drug problems with psychiatric disorders. This study aims to determine if higher levels of perceived neighborhood problems are associated with greater prevalence of 12-month and lifetime psychiatric disorders among African Americans.

Methods

To do so, we used cross-sectional data from the National Survey of American Life, which interviewed a nationally representative sample of 3,570 African Americans.

Results

Of these African Americans, nearly 20 and 40% reported that crime and drug use are problems in their neighborhoods, respectively. Respondents reporting high levels of perceived neighborhood crime or drug problems are 1.5–2.9 times more likely to have a 12-month psychiatric disorder and 1.4–2.1 times more likely to have a lifetime psychiatric disorder compared to the other respondents. After accounting for sociodemographics and chronic disease, neighborhood crime remains associated with 12-month mood, 12-month substance use, and lifetime substance use disorders, whereas neighborhood drug problems remain significantly associated with 12-month and lifetime anxiety and substance use disorders.

Conclusions

Among African Americans perceived neighborhood problems are widespread and positively associated with psychiatric disorders. Consideration of neighborhood context is important to more comprehensively understand mental illness and its treatment in this population.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Williams DR (1998) African-American health: the role of the social environment. J Urban Health 75:300–321

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wandersman A, Nation M (1998) Urban neighborhoods and mental health: psychological contributions to understanding toxicity, resilience, and interventions. Am Psychol 53:647–656

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Israel BA, Farquhar SA, Schulz AJ, James SA, Parker EA (2002) The relationship between social support, stress, and health among women on Detroit’s east side. Health Educ Behav 29:342–360

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Jackson JS, Knight KM, Rafferty JA (2010) Race and unhealthy behaviors: chronic stress, the HPA axis, and physical and mental health disparities over the life course. Am J Public Health 100:933–939

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Diez Roux AV (2001) Investigating neighborhood and area effects on health. Am J Public Health 91:1783–1789

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Robert SA (1999) Socioeconomic position and health: the independent contribution of community socioeconomic context. Annu Rev Sociol 25:489–516

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kawachi I, Berkman LF (2003) Neighborhoods and health. Oxford University Press, Inc, New York

  8. Krieger N (2007) Why epidemiologists cannot afford to ignore poverty. Epidemiology 18:658–663

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. US Department of Health and Human Services (2001) Mental health: culture, race, and ethnicity. A supplement to mental health: a report of the Surgeon General. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, Rockville

  10. US Census Bureau (2010) Historical poverty tables. US Census Bureau, Washington DC. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/historical/people.html. Accessed 17 Dec 2010

  11. Kim D (2008) Blues from the neighborhood? Neighborhood characteristics and depression. Epidemiol Rev 30:101–117

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Gary TL, Stark SA, LaVeist TA (2007) Neighborhood characteristics and mental health among African Americans and whites living in a racially integrated urban community. Health Place 13:569–575

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Latkin CA, Curry AD (2003) Stressful neighborhoods and depression: a prospective study of the impact of neighborhood disorder. J Health Soc Behav 44:34–44

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Green G, Gilbertson JM, Grimsley MF (2002) Fear of crime and health in residential tower blocks. A case study in Liverpool, UK. Eur J Public Health 12:10–15

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Whitley R, Prince M (2005) Fear of crime, mobility and mental health in inner-city London, UK. Soc Sci Med 61:1678–1688

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Breslau N, Kessler RC, Chilcoat HD, Schultz LR, Davis GC, Andreski P (1998) Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in the community: the 1996 detroit area survey of trauma. Arch Gen Psychiatry 55:626–632

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Curry A, Latkin C, Davey-Rothwell M (2008) Pathways to depression: the impact of neighborhood violent crime on inner-city residents in Baltimore, MD, USA. Soc Sci Med 67:23–30

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Jackson JS, Torres M, Caldwell CH et al (2004) The National Survey of American Life: a study of racial, ethnic and cultural influences on mental disorders and mental health. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res 13:196–207

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Alegria M, Jackson JS, Kessler RC, Takeuchi D (2010) Collaborative psychiatric epidemiology surveys (CPES), 2001–2003. Institute for Social Research, Survey Research Center and Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, Ann Arbor. http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/CPES/. Accessed 7 April 2010

  20. Clark CR, Kawachi I, Ryan L, Ertel K, Fay ME, Berkman LF (2009) Perceived neighborhood safety and incident mobility disability among elders: the hazards of poverty. BMC Public Health 9:162

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, Jin R, Merikangas KR, Walters EE (2005) Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry 62:593–602

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009) Continuous NHANES web tutorial. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/tutorials/nhanes/index_current.htm. Accessed 11 April 2010

  23. Kessler RC, Chiu WT, Demler O, Merikangas KR, Walters EE (2005) Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the national comorbidity survey replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry 62:617–627

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Brown RE, Ojeda VD, Wyn R, Levan R (2000) Racial and ethnic disparities in access to health insurance and health care. UCLA Center for Health Policy and Research and The Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation, Los Angeles

    Google Scholar 

  25. Williams DR, Gonzalez HM, Neighbors H et al (2007) Prevalence and distribution of major depressive disorder in African Americans, Caribbean blacks, and non-Hispanic whites: results from the National Survey of American Life. Arch Gen Psychiatry 64:305–315

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Alegria M, Chatterji P, Wells K et al (2008) Disparity in depression treatment among racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States. Psychiatr Serv 59:1264–1272

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Wang PS, Demler O, Kessler RC (2002) Adequacy of treatment for serious mental illness in the United States. Am J Public Health 92:92–98

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Sue S, Fujino DC, Hu LT, Takeuchi DT, Zane NW (1991) Community mental health services for ethnic minority groups: a test of the cultural responsiveness hypothesis. J Consult Clin Psychol 59:533–540

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Borowsky SJ, Rubenstein LV, Meredith LS, Camp P, Jackson-Triche M, Wells KB (2000) Who is at risk of nondetection of mental health problems in primary care? J Gen Intern Med 15:381–388

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Beekman AT, Bremmer MA, Deeg DJ et al (1998) Anxiety disorders in later life: a report from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 13:717–726

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Hudson DL, Neighbors HW, Geronimus AT, Jackson JS (2011) The relationship between socioeconomic position and depression among a US nationally representative sample of African Americans. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. http://www.springerlink.com/content/vr8n04727166j514/. Accessed 17 May 2011

  32. Vink D, Aartsen MJ, Schoevers RA (2008) Risk factors for anxiety and depression in the elderly: a review. J Affect Disord 106:29–44

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Kessler RC, Heeringa S, Lakoma MD et al (2008) Individual and societal effects of mental disorders on earnings in the United States: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Am J Psychiatry 165:703–711

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Teplin LA, McClelland GM, Abram KM, Weiner DA (2005) Crime victimization in adults with severe mental illness: comparison with the National Crime Victimization Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry 62:911–921

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Schuurmans J, Comijs HC, Beekman AT et al (2005) The outcome of anxiety disorders in older people at 6-year follow-up: results from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Acta Psychiatr Scand 111:420–428

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Beekman AT, Geerlings SW, Deeg DJ et al (2002) The natural history of late-life depression: a 6-year prospective study in the community. Arch Gen Psychiatry 59:605–611

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Sampson RJ, Raudenbush SW, Earls F (1997) Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science 277:918–924

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Kloos B, Shah S (2009) A social ecological approach to investigating relationships between housing and adaptive functioning for persons with serious mental illness. Am J Community Psychol 44:316–326

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Mair C, Diez Roux AV, Galea S (2008) Are neighbourhood characteristics associated with depressive symptoms? A review of evidence. J Epidemiol Community Health 62:940–946

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Latkin CA, German D, Hua W, Curry AD (2009) Individual-level influences on perceptions of neighborhood disorder: a multilevel analysis. J Community Psychol 37:122–133

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Haro JM, Arbabzadeh-Bouchez S, Brugha TS, de Girolamo G, Guyer ME, Jin R, Lepine JP, Mazzi F, Reneses B, Vilagut G, Sampson NA, Kessler RC (2006) Concordance of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview version 3.0 (CIDI 3.0) with standardized clinical assessments in the WHO World Mental Health surveys. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res 15:167–180

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Adam Simning is a trainee in the University of Rochester’s Medical Scientist Training Program funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) (T32 GM007356), and these analyses and subsequent research report are supported by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) (TL1RR024135), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the NCRR or NIH. Information on the NCRR is available at http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/. Information on Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise can be obtained from http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/clinicalresearch/overview-translational.asp. Some of this manuscript’s findings have been presented at University of Rochester’s Collier Mental Health Research Poster Session, Rochester, NY, March 31, 2010.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest to report.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 265 Crittenden Boulevard, CU 420644, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA

    Adam Simning & Edwin van Wijngaarden

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 300 Crittenden Boulevard, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA

    Yeates Conwell

Authors
  1. Adam Simning
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Edwin van Wijngaarden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yeates Conwell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adam Simning.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Simning, A., van Wijngaarden, E. & Conwell, Y. The association of African Americans’ perceptions of neighborhood crime and drugs with mental illness. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 47, 1159–1167 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0426-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0426-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation