Article

Patterns of place-based self-regulation and associated mental health of urban adolescents†

  1. Michael J. Mason1,*,
  2. Kalevi Korpela2,
  3. Jeremy Mennis3,
  4. J. Douglas Coatsworth4,
  5. Thomas W. Valente5,
  6. Amber Pomponio1,
  7. Patricia A. Pate6

Article first published online: 8 FEB 2010

DOI: 10.1002/jcop.20357

Issue

Journal of Community Psychology

Journal of Community Psychology

Volume 38, Issue 2, pages 155–171, March 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

Mason, M. J., Korpela, K., Mennis, J., Coatsworth, J. D., Valente, T. W., Pomponio, A. and Pate, P. A. (2010), Patterns of place-based self-regulation and associated mental health of urban adolescents. J. Community Psychol., 38: 155–171. doi: 10.1002/jcop.20357

Author Information

  1. 1

    Villanova University, Villanova, PA

  2. 2

    University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

  3. 3

    Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

  4. 4

    Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA

  5. 5

    University of Southern California, Alhambra, CA

  6. 6

    Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA

*366 St. Augustine Center, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085-1699

  1. †

    The project described was supported by Award Number R21DA020146 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institutes of Health.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 8 FEB 2010
  2. Article first published online: 8 FEB 2010

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Abstract

Efforts to simultaneously address adolescent self-regulation, activity space (routine locations), and mental health represent a promising social ecological approach aimed at understanding the lives and development of urban youth. This type of examination of contextual influences on self-regulation is considered an important area of developmental research, yet one that is understudied (McCabe, Cunnington, & Brooks-Gunn, 2004). Little is known about the self-regulatory experiences that might link specific types of locations with mental health problems, particularly with urban youth who live in areas characterized by chronic and severe stressors such as personal violence, criminal activity, and poverty. Recent research has demonstrated the “power of context” (Tolan, Gorman-Smith, Henry, Chung, & Hunt, 2002) to influence coping styles and has demonstrated that without detailed and specified knowledge of the social ecology of urban youth, measurement of critical variables and interpretation of results are likely to be misinformed (Tolan & Grant, 2009). Given the importance of understanding youth through an interactive and contextual framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Szapocznik & Coatsworth, 1999), the present study examined self-regulatory experiences, specified favorite locations, and mental health with urban adolescents residing in low-resource and high-risk environments. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (139K)