ed an adequate bibliography to support the theories presented, but lacked a comprehensive presentation of the theories.
The study not only presented the theories but utilized data from three waves of the NELS and U.S. zip-code data on local communities, to support the theories. The data sample was nationally representative and included students, parents, teachers, and principals. The sample for this analysis included 14,358 adolescents across 2,988 locales. A survey provided data regarding critical transitions through school and work transitions. The survey evaluated hypotheses regarding effects of social capital on outcomes for students. This study used the data to explore fighting by adolescents. The dependent variable was fighting, as an indicator of adolescent violence.
The study findings were consistent with the theories of structural social disorganization and cultural social isolation, in that white-black and white-Latino differences in violence were explained by community and family disadvantages. Differences between whites and American Indians remained unexplained.
Falsification principles were not formally utilized since there was no formal hypothesis and therefore no null hypothesis to prove false.
New data for this study included support for the theories of structural social disorganization and cultural social isolation for an explanation of racial-ethnic juvenile violence; white-black and white-Latino differences in violence were explained by community and family disadvantages.
Variables for the study included fighting as the dependent variable and race-ethnic group membership (Asian, American Indian, blacks, Hispanics, whites, and other), and community-level factors, family well-being factors, and social capital factors.
This was not a study of a treatment program. This article presented the theories of structural social disorganization and cultural social isolation for explanations of rac...