A Tale of Two Cities: Residential Context and the Health-Risk Behaviors of Latino Adolescents in Los Angeles and Chicago

Reanne Frank, Ohio State University

This analysis explores the possibility that residential location alters the adaptive trajectories of Latino youth in two different metropolitan areas. The data for the analysis come from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LAFANS) and the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). We estimate the effects of individual, family, and neighborhood-level influences on two scales of adolescent health risk-behaviors (substance use and delinquency). We find that in Los Angeles, residence in communities with high levels of Latino co-ethnics is associated with higher odds of substance use and delinquency, particularly for U.S.-born Latinos. In Chicago, a different pattern appears whereby residence in communities with a high concentration of non-Latino Black residents increases the odds of substance use and delinquency for U.S.-born Latinos. We conclude that both sets of results illustrate the negative effects of segregation and concentrated disadvantage for Latino children of immigrants.