Cognitive Skills, Adolescent Violence, and the Moderating Role of Neighborhood Disadvantage
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Thomas L. McNulty; Paul E. Bellair
- Source
- Justice Quarterly. 27:538-559
- Subject
- Multilevel model
Injury prevention
Human factors and ergonomics
Poison control
Cognition
Cognitive skill
National Longitudinal Surveys
Psychology
Law
Social psychology
Pathology and Forensic Medicine
Disadvantaged
- Language
- ISSN
- 1745-9109
0741-8825
Numerous studies uncover a link between cognitive skills and adolescent violence. Overlooked is whether the relationship changes at varying levels of neighborhood disadvantage. We examine the issue by contrasting two models that place individual difference in cognitive skill within a social‐structural framework. Using five waves of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and a three‐level hierarchical model, results indicate that cognitive skill is inversely associated with violence and that the relationship is strongest in non‐disadvantaged neighborhoods. However, the cognitive skills–violence relationship is indistinguishable from zero in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. The findings are therefore consistent with the hypothesis that social expression of developed ability is muted in disadvantaged contexts.