Variable approach | Description | Examples |
---|---|---|
Derived variable
| Derived variables are created by summarizing the characteristics of individuals within a group, using means, medians, proportions, or measures of dispersion (e.g., variances) or other aggregation approaches | |
Based on group-level mean | Use average individual responses to items on a given scale; these means are then subsequently averaged across individuals living in the same context (e.g., neighborhood) to arrive at a contextual-level measure. | |
Based on group-level variance | Use average individual responses to items on a given scale; the variance (or standard deviation) in these means are then examined among individuals living in the same context (e.g., neighborhood) to arrive at a contextual-level measure. | [19] |
Factor Analysis
| Capture the shared variance among an observed set of variables in terms of a potentially smaller number of unobserved constructs or latent factors. | |
Single-level factor analysis | Latent factors are estimated at only one level (i.e., the individual or contextual level). | [18] |
Multilevel factor analysis (MLFA) | Latent factors are estimated at two-levels of analysis. Latent factors structures can differ at each level of analysis. | |
Hierarchical Latent Variable Model
| A special case of the 2-level MLFA that imposes stricter parameter constraints than the most general MLFA wherein latent factors are estimated at only the individual level with the factor variances decomposed into within- and between-group components. |
Methods
Sample and study design
Measures
Collective efficacy
Intraclass correlation coefficient | |||
---|---|---|---|
Total sample | Sample one | Sample two | |
Indicator variables |
N = 2594
|
n = 1291
|
n = 1303
|
1…this is a close-knit neighborhood | 0.083 | 0.112 | 0.121 |
2…there are adults that kids look up to | 0.198 | 0.253 | 0.216 |
3…people around here are willing to help their neighbors | 0.133 | 0.142 | 0.174 |
4…people in this neighborhood generally don’t get along with each other | 0.149 | 0.148 | 0.178 |
5…adults watch out that kids are safe | 0.085 | 0.112 | 0.089 |
6…people in this neighborhood do not share the same values | 0.120 | 0.174 | 0.114 |
7…people in this neighborhood can be trusted | 0.203 | 0.198 | 0.254 |
8…children were skipping school and hanging out on a street corner | 0.104 | 0.131 | 0.125 |
9…children were spray-painting graffiti on a local building | 0.262 | 0.299 | 0.273 |
10…children were showing disrespect to an adult | 0.062 | 0.093 | 0.090 |
Statistical analysis
Results
Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC)
Correlations
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | CLOSEKNIT | 1.000 | |||||||||
2 | ADULTS | 0.461 | 1.000 | ||||||||
3 | HELP | 0.483 | 0.467 | 1.000 | |||||||
4 | ALONG | 0.210 | 0.310 | 0.368 | 1.000 | ||||||
5 | SAFE | 0.395 | 0.377 | 0.458 | 0.240 | 1.000 | |||||
6 | VALUES | 0.153 | 0.093 | 0.165 | 0.321 | 0.141 | 1.000 | ||||
7 | TRUST | 0.408 | 0.422 | 0.528 | 0.309 | 0.487 | 0.234 | 1.000 | |||
8 | SKIP | 0.256 | 0.207 | 0.296 | 0.174 | 0.333 | 0.124 | 0.358 | 1.000 | ||
9 | GRAFFITI | 0.219 | 0.239 | 0.283 | 0.212 | 0.358 | 0.163 | 0.294 | 0.557 | 1.000 | |
10 | DISRESPECT | 0.287 | 0.202 | 0.285 | 0.194 | 0.261 | 0.125 | 0.278 | 0.470 | 0.476 | 1.000 |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | CLOSEKNIT | 1.000 | |||||||||
2 | ADULTS | 0.735 | 1.000 | ||||||||
3 | HELP | 0.773 | 0.862 | 1.000 | |||||||
4 | ALONG | 0.593 | 0.758 | 0.855 | 1.000 | ||||||
5 | SAFE | 0.749 | 0.853 | 0.897 | 0.902 | 1.000 | |||||
6 | VALUES | 0.561 | 0.620 | 0.668 | 0.754 | 0.705 | 1.000 | ||||
7 | TRUST | 0.742 | 0.842 | 0.870 | 0.834 | 0.934 | 0.653 | 1.000 | |||
8 | SKIP | 0.826 | 0.641 | 0.731 | 0.677 | 0.765 | 0.650 | 0.697 | 1.000 | ||
9 | GRAFFITI | 0.729 | 0.858 | 0.870 | 0.857 | 0.865 | 0.725 | 0.823 | 0.757 | 1.000 | |
10 | DISRESPECT | 0.489 | 0.205 | 0.478 | 0.316 | 0.254 | 0.257 | 0.320 | 0.480 | 0.382 | 1.000 |
Multilevel factor analysis (MLFA) results
Multilevel exploratory factor analysis (ML-EFA)
Within-level | Between-level | ||
---|---|---|---|
Factor 1 | Factor 2 | Factor 1 | |
1…this is a close-knit neighborhood |
0.618
| 0.030 |
0.797
|
2…there are adults that kids look up to |
0.642
| −0.034 |
0.833
|
3…people around here are willing to help their neighbors |
0.735
| 0.038 |
0.935
|
4…people in this neighborhood generally don’t get along with each other |
0.418
| −0.008 |
0.931
|
5…adults watch out that kids are safe |
0.630
| 0.035 |
0.972
|
6…people in this neighborhood do not share the same values | 0.297 | 0.015 |
0.668
|
7…people in this neighborhood can be trusted |
0.773
| −0.046 |
0.924
|
8…children were skipping school and hanging out on a street corner | 0.121 |
0.662
|
0.823
|
9…children were spray-painting graffiti on a local building | 0.001 |
0.711
|
0.917
|
10…children were showing disrespect to an adult | −0.010 |
0.723
|
0.462
|
Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (ML-CFA)
Within-level | Between-level | ||
---|---|---|---|
Factor 1 | Factor 2 | Factor 1 | |
1…this is a close-knit neighborhood | 0.622 | 0.774 | |
2…there are adults that kids look up to | 0.631 | 0.824 | |
3…people around here are willing to help their neighbors | 0.701 | 0.857 | |
4…people in this neighborhood generally don’t get along with each other | 0.474 | 0.828 | |
5…adults watch out that kids are safe | 0.649 | 0.819 | |
6…people in this neighborhood do not share the same values | 0.266 | 0.807 | |
7…people in this neighborhood can be trusted | 0.681 | 0.897 | |
8…children were skipping school and hanging out on a street corner | 0.724 | 0.667 | |
9…children were spray-painting graffiti on a local building | 0.769 | 0.928 | |
10…children were showing disrespect to an adult | 0.613 | 0.353 |