The purposes of this research brief were to examine (a) whether youth reports of neighborhood qualities were significantly related to census data at the block group, measuring the same structural qualities and (b) whether the structural qualities were related to youth development either directly or indirectly through youth perceptions. Data were collected from three sources: self-report surveys, school records, and the 2000 U.S. census. A nonrandom sample of 534 Latino students from one high school in Los Angeles was used. Correlations and structural equation modeling (SEM) demonstrated that youth reports of neighborhoods were significantly related to the structural qualities. SEM demonstrated that the structural qualities were indirectly related to all four adolescent outcomes (i.e., self-esteem, self-efficacy, academic aspirations, grades) via adolescents’ perceptions.
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