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  Family Strengthening, Alliance Building, Advocacy, and Collective Action
  Connection to Informal Social Networks
  Connections to Formal Helping Systems
  Connections to Economic Opportunity
  Building Neighborhood Assets
  Family Function
  Child and Family Well-Being
  Background Information and Other Indicators

 

Measures
Please note: the information contained in this record is current as of April, 2003.  Please contact the organizations listed below directly if you would like additional or updated information.

Measure   Description   Validity/Reliability
Activities that promote civic involvement   Information about politics and national issues   Pending
Activities that promote or indicate personal responsibility   Participation in school activities, leadership, initiative, school sports, and extracurricular activities.   Pending
Additional items on service activities   Respondent participation in community (service activity, service activities) during the school year.   Pending
Adult health   Respondent resports of personal health.   Pending
Adult-Youth Participation Index   Adult volunteerism with children and youth. 3-item index.   Yes
Assets   Family assets.   Yes
Assist   Refers to situations in which children might be hurt or need assistance.   Yes
Associational Involvement   Measures participation in approximately 18 types of groups and organizations.   Yes
Autonomy   An abbreviated (3-item) version of this scale.   Yes
Availability of regional job information   Employment.   Yes
Availability of transportation to regional jobs   Respondents are asked to select the three forms of transportation they use most frequently from a list.   Yes
Behavior Problems Index   26-item inventory of behavior problems many children have.   Yes
Block Club Activities   Participation in block club meetings and neighborhood watch   Yes
Business Vitality Scale   Perception of business vitality.   Yes
CES-D   Client-rated report of depressive symptomatology.   Yes
Child-centered social control   Three-item Likert scale disaggregated from the collective efficacy scale, measuring separate aspects of child-centered behavior from more general aspects of social cohesion and neighborhood control.   Yes
Church Activities   Participation in church activities   Yes
Civic Involvement Index   Measures civic involvement, community participation and volunteerism.   Yes
Civic Leadership   Measures whether respondents served as an officer or served on a committee of any local club or organization in the past 12 months.   Yes
Civic Participation   Respondent participation in voting, petitioning, attending political meetings, rallies, community projects, demonstrations, protests, boycotts, and/or marches.   Yes
Cognitive stimulation scale   Parent interaction with child.   Yes
Cohesiveness Scale   Measures perceived social cohesion of neighbors.   Yes
Collaborative activity   Assessment of the level of collaboration with other service providers and the type of joint activity.   Pending
Collective Action Scale   Measure of neighborhood's ability to achieve goals.   Yes
Communication & community opinions and perspectives   Describes the ways in which the organization disseminates information about it's services and gathers information about community needs.   No
Community definition   Defining the boundaries and characteristics of a particular neighborhood.   No
Community involvement   Questions about respondent's volunteer and neighborhood activites and voting behavior.   Pending
Community involvement , networks, and government   Ways in which the organization works with other groups and people to address issues that relate to children and families.   No
Community organization information sheet   Description of facility .   No
Community participation and involvement   Repondent participation in neighborhood associations, block clubs, and/or other neighborhood meetings.   Pending
Computer and Internet use supplement   Questions about the use of personal computers.   Yes
Computer technology   Respondent's access to computers and the Internet.   Pending
Condition of Neighborhood   Physical appearance and condition of neighborhood buildings.   Yes
Crime and victimization   Respondent accounts of feelings of personal safety and criminal acts in the last 6 months.   Pending
Crime, Delinquency & Arrest   Self-reported arrest history.   Yes
Current housing   Questions about current living situation.   Pending
Custom questions   Questions about job opportuntities, local action, race relations, ethnic diversity, and charter schools   Pending
Delinquency rate scale   Three questions selected to tap patterns of conduct typical of adolescent delinquency - gang fights, graffiti and causing trouble in groups.   Yes
Demographics   Responder age, gender, income, etc.   Pending
Demographics (Boston)   Demographics   Pending
Demographics (Jacksonville)   age, race,income, gender, education   No
Demographics (Knight)   Question about demographic characteristics of respondent.   Pending
Density of neighborhood acquaintances   Neighborhood networks.   Yes
Discipline   Number of reported spanking episodes in the past week.   Yes
Disorder   Includes items to tap perceptions of deleterious conditions in neighborhoods.   Yes
Diversity of Friendship Set   Eleven categories broadly measure the degree to which people's social networks are diverse.   Yes
Domestic violence/abusive relationships   Respondent reports of domestic abuse and violence.   Pending
Electoral Politics   This measure looks at how many in communities are registered to vote, actually vote, express interest in politics, are knowledgeable about political affairs and read the newspaper daily.   Yes
Eliciting   This scale measures the frequency with which mothers encourage communication from their children and engage in those activities which their children prefer. All items are maternal report, and they include asking the child to explain why he/she is upset, checking the child's facial expression, allowing the child to ask questions, engaging in the child's favorite activities, and talking about the child's activities. The five items, ranging from one to five, are averaged to create the total score. (Mariner et al, 1998)   Yes
Emotional support   Interviewer-rated observations of parent behavior toward child.   Yes
Employment and Earnings   Respondent's income and employement status and history.   Yes
Employment and Education   Questions about employment, education and training.   Pending
Employment and job search   Availability of benefits in job, and how respondent found out about current job.   Pending
Employment and job training   Respondent employment and job training history.   Pending
Employment and journey to work   Repondent's employment status, hours worked per week, and usual transportation to work.   Pending
Environment   Assessment of environmental issues in the county of residence.   Pending
Environmental characteristics   Respondents are asked to estimate the approximate percentage of each environmental characteristic present in the neighborhood.   Pending
Expectations of responsibility   These five questions ask mothers to report how often they expect their children to perform certain household responsibilities. The scale score reflects the average score on the five items. NOTE: Authors here report that this measure is comprised entirely of items derived from the HOME-SF yet note that in the HOME-SF these items do not form the basis of a separate measure. Instead, scores for these items are collapsed and incorporated into a larger subscale. (Mariner et al, 1998)   Yes
Expectations, employment, income   Deals with educational aspirations, employment, finances, and expectations of life events.   Yes
Expression of affection   This scale measures the frequency with which the mother expressed affection to the child, using both maternal report and interviewer ratings. (Child Trends, 1999)   Yes
Extracurricular educational participation   School performance and youth achievement.   Yes
Facility Availability   Measures the existence of neighborhood institutions and services.   Yes
Facility Quality   Reflects resident judgment of the facilities in their neighborhood.   Yes
Facility Usage   Usage of facilities in the last 2 months.   Yes
Faith-based Social Capital   This measure of faith-based engagement looks at religious attendance and membership, participation in activities besides services, participation in organization affiliated with religion, giving to religious causes, and volunteering at place of worship.   Yes
Family environment   Questions about family rules and activities   Pending
Family Income   Respondent's income history and assistance programs.   Yes
Family obligations   Household roster, school enrollment, care of adult family members   Pending
Family routines   Contains 22 items related to the frequency with which family members engage in individual and mutual activities (e.g. after-school activities, eating dinner together) and the regularity of daily schedules (e.g. time parent returns from work, bedtimes, mealtimes).   Yes
Family-centered behavior scale   Opinion of staff responsiveness and inclusiveness of family in child's care.   Yes
Family-centered behavior scale - importance   Companion scale to the Family-Centered Behavior Scale on which parents can rate the importance of each scale item. 26 items.   Yes
Final section (HOPE VI)   Three items on income, car ownership, and possession of driver's license.   Pending
First section   Questions about safety, residential tenure, quality of public services, neighborhood problems, activities, and organizational involvement.   Pending
Formal and informal neighborhood groups   Tally and descriptions of formal and informal groups or organizations found in the neighborhood.   No
Gang general   Youth cohort 15-18.   Yes
Gang membership   Youth cohort 15-18. Respondents attitudes about being a member of a gang.   Yes
Giving and Volunteering   This dimension measures how often community residents volunteer at various venues and how generous they are in giving.   Yes
Government and taxes   Respondents indicate feelings about tax spending and role of government.   Pending
Government/politics   Elected city of Jacksonville leadership, elected Duval County school board leadership, government awareness by naming city council members and keeping up with the news, satisfaction with city public safety services and city services, citizen feeling of influence.   No
Hardship   Two items of economic hardship.   Pending
Health (Jacksonville)   health insurance coverage, quality of health/medical care   No
Health (Pittsburgh)   Heatlh status and life satisfaction.   Yes
Health care   Respondent's health care coverage and health status   Pending
Health care and health care facilities   Responent's use of and satisfaction with health care facilities.   Pending
Health Care Coverage   Respondent's health care coverage.   Yes
Household Roster   Description of each person living in the household.   Pending
Housing   Homeownership, investment in home,a nd housing satisfaction.   Yes
Housing and Economic Hardship   Respondent's living arrangements.   Yes
Housing and neighborhood   Questions on home ownership, public housing, housing problems, mobility, section 8, neighborhood pride and neighborhood problems.   Pending
Housing and residential mobility   Respondent reports about his/her housing situation.   Pending
Housing conditions   Questions about housing tenure, homeownership, housing assistance, housing subsidy, and mortgage /rent payments.   Pending
Housing Quality and Hazards   Respondent reports of housing quality.   Pending
Housing- Census   household questions   Yes
Identity   Asks if residents have a name for their neighborhood.   Yes
Informal Social Interactions   Measures the degree to which residents had friends over to their home, hung out with friends in a public place, socialized with coworkers outside of work, played cards or board games with others, and visited with relatives.   Yes
Interaction   Asks about acquaintanceships, activities, and mutual aid among neighbors.   Yes
Intergenerational closure   Measures active support of neighborhood children by adults.   Yes
Intervene   Asks general statements about whether or not neighbors would intervene with other people's children.   Yes
Inventory of neighborhood services   Checklist of 14 neighborhood services and respondent ratings of quality.   Pending
Issues, Problems, Social Services   Respondent's feelings, issues, help options and activities.   Yes
Joint activities   All six items on this scale are based on maternal report, and measure the frequency of shared mother-child activities. The six items range from one to five, and are averaged to create a total score. (Mariner et al, 1998)   Yes
Kinship/friendship ties   Measures the number and relative proportion of friends and relatives that respondents reported living in the neighborhood.   Yes
Local facility use   Availability of activities and services in or near respondent's neighborhood.   Yes
Mastery Scale   This 7-item scale was used in the LA FANS Primary Caregiver survey.   Yes
Media questions   Questions about where respondent gets news and information.   Pending
Memberships or activity in local organizations/institutions   4-item scale. Respondents are instructed to tell the interviewer whether they have participated in the activity in the last 12 months.   Yes
Mixed Housing Scale   Perceptions of the diversity of housing/income levels.   Yes
Mobility   Renters and residential mobility.   Yes
Mobility (Jacksonville)   commuting times, methods of commuting   No
Monitoring   This measure consists of seven items concerning how much the mother knows about her child's activities. Responses range from almost never knowing about these things (1) to always knowing (5). However, frequencies are highly skewed, with mothers responding at the high end. As a result, the response categories are recoded so as to be dichotomous, with a score of one (1) indicating always knowing, and all other responses are coded as zero (0). (Mariner et al, 1998)   Yes
Mother-school interface   This scale is the mean of five items measuring the mother's involvement in the child's schooling. Scores range from 1(not in the past 12 months) to 4 (6 or more times in the past 12 months), and the five items are averaged to produce a total score. (Mariner et al, 1998)   Yes
Mutual trust   Single item measuring mutual trust among neighbors.   Yes
National Immunization Survey - Household Questionnaire   Family questionnaire on children immunization records.   Yes
Need for Outside Resources Scale   Perceptions of economic, business and housing opportunities in the neighborhood.   Yes
Neighborhood   Measures the extent to which the respondent perceives himself as being a part of his neighborhood.   Yes
Neighborhood (HOPE VI)   Neighborhood conditions   Pending
Neighborhood activism   Five questions on whether respondents had contacted local officials (e.g. politician, church leader) or otherwise taken action "to take care of a local problem, or to make the neighborhood a better place to live."   Yes
Neighborhood and neighboring   Respondent reports about neighborhood problems, neighborhood definition, and informal social interaction.   Pending
Neighborhood attitudes   29 items assessing respondent's perceptions of neighborhood conditions.   Pending
Neighborhood change or stability   Issues of family mobility, business mobility   No
Neighborhood Cohesion Index   19-item index of respondent's sense of belonging and cohesion with neighbors, interaction with neighbors, and degree of collective action.   Yes
Neighborhood conditions   Report of neighborhood conditions in the two or three blocks right around respondent's home.   Yes
Neighborhood definition   4 items on neighborhood boundaries and definition, as well as whether or not respondent plans to remain in the neighborhood.   Pending
Neighborhood direction   Respondent feelings about where the neighborhood is headed.   Pending
Neighborhood life   Questions about neighborhood definition, tenure, safety, neighbor relations, and racial discrimination.   Pending
Neighborhood Mobility Scale   Perceptions of neighborhood mobility.   Yes
Neighborhood name consensus   Neighborhood boundaries.   Yes
Neighborhood organizations/services   Nine-item index of reported local organizations and programs combined with a 6-item inventory of youth services.   Yes
Neighborhood participation   6 item index of participation in local activities.   Pending
Neighborhood problems   13 item checklist of the presence and severity of neighborhood problems.   Pending
Neighborhood Problems Scale   Nine-item index of the perceived commonality of neighborhood problems.   Yes
Neighborhood Quality   Caregiver judgments on the positive and negative aspects of their neighborhood and whether or not they would like to continue living in their neighborhood.   Yes
Neighborhood safety   One-item question on neighborhood safety.   Pending
Neighborhood supports   Organizational supports available to respondent.   Yes
Neighborhood worries   Respondent indicates degree of worry about 7 neighborhood items.   Pending
Neighboring activities   Questions tap into neighboring activities .   Yes
Neighboring patterns   Questions about neighbor to neighbor relations.   Yes
Older children   Repondent reports of older child's experiences in the home and neighborhood.   Pending
Organization leadership   This series of questions deals with the characteristics of the leaders and leadership structures in the community.   No
Organization staff   Numbers of staff, including volunteers, and sources of those volunteers.   No
Other domain satisfactions   Respondent reports of satisfaction with various aspects of his/her life.   Pending
Other organizations   Respondent membership, activities and volunteer work in community organizations.   Yes
Outlook for move and redevelopment   Respondent's plans for staying or leaving housing development.   Pending
Parent involvement with school activities   Parent involvement with school activities.   Yes
Parent's expectations for child(ren)   Question about how far parents would like to see their children go in school.   Yes
Parental Involvement Scale   Parent involvement in child supervision/education.   Yes
Parks, recreation, and where children play   Use of public parks.   Pending
Participation in neighborhood   Membership and activity in neighborhood/block organizations.   Yes
Participation in neighborhood block watch programs   Participation in community security programs.   Yes
Participation on advisory boards   Influence over local institutions/services.   Yes
Perceived accessibility of capital   Perceptions of the ability of residents to secure home loans.   Yes
Perceived barriers to employment   Resident employment. 2-item index.   Yes
Perceived need to marshal diverse group support   Attempts to get at how the people in neighborhoods help each other and work together.   Yes
Perceived neighborhood violence   One of three scales which attempts to measure violence.   Yes
Perceptions of job accessibility   Perceptions of neighborhood economic opportunity.   Yes
Person- Census   US Census   Yes
Personal victimization   One of three scales which attempts to measure violence.   Yes
Physical abuse scale-respondent   Records reported incidence of physical abuse by respondent toward spouse/partner.   Yes
Physical abuse scale-victim   Records reported incidence of physical abuse by respondent from spouse/partner.   Yes
Physical characteristics of neighborhood   Respondents are asked to estimate the approximate percentage of each physical characteristic present in the neighborhood.   Pending
Plans for post secondary education   Respondent plans for postsecondary education, training, or employment.   Pending
Police   Resident attitudes about neighborhood police.   Pending
Political participation   4-item scale.   Yes
Positive Change   The direction of neighborhood change in the past couple of years.   Yes
Preschool participation   Participation in preschool, Head Start and after school programs.   Yes
Protest Politics   Dimension is a composite of the participation in marches, demonstrations, boycotts, rallies, groups that took action for local reform; and labor and ethnically-related groups.   Yes
Provision of stimulating materials   This measure is an index of how many cognitively stimulating materials the child has access to in the home and is actually allowed to use or operate. The index ranges from 0 to 1, representing the proportion of these seven items available to the child. (Mariner et al, 1998)   Yes
Public Housing   Respondent thoughts on public housing and the HOPE VI program.   Pending
Public safety   feeling safe in one's neighborhood, crime victimization   No
Public Services   Measures of satisfaction with public services and schools.   Yes
Public services and transportation   Respondent ratings of public transportation, garbage and street maintenance services.   Pending
Quality of neighborhood services   Respondent rating of 10 areas of public service provision in the neighborhood.   Pending
Quality of programs index   Respondents are asked about the facilities and services available to people in the neighborhood and the quality of those facilities and services.   Yes
Quality of services index   Respondents are asked about the facilities and services available to people in the neighborhood and the quality of those facilities and services.   Yes
Racial Trust   Measures the extent to which different racial groups trust one another.   Yes
Racial/ethnic socialization   This scale consists of five items, including discussion about one's own race/ethnicity, discussions about others' race/ethnicity, discussions about discrimination, celebrations focusing on own race/ethnicity, and having toys related town race/ethnicity. The items were phrased in such a way that they were appropriate for minority as well as non-minority families, and indeed there was little missing data from any of the racial/ethnic subgroups. The five items were scored from one to five (dichotomous item is actually scored two and four) and a totals score was calculated by averaging the five items. (Mariner et al, 1998)   Yes
Reasoning discipline   This scale was created from mother's responses to six hypothetical misbehaviors, which they could choose to respond to in as many as fourteen ways. These disciplinary responses were them grouped into three theoretically based categories, reasoning (talk about it, make child apologize, make child do something to correct the situation), moderate punishment (time out, take away a privilege, ground, give extra work), and harsh punishment (spank, hit, scold or yell, threaten). For each of the six items, a score of three was assigned if the mother chose one or more of the reasoning strategies, and none of the punishments. A score of two was assigned if the mother chose one or more of the moderate punishments and none of the harsh punishments. A score of one was assigned if the mother chose any of the harsh punishments. Scores across the six hypothetical situations were then averaged. There were three situations (e.g. child did X, Y, Z) with each situation repeated (child did X again). This permits consideration of disciplinary strategy when misbehavior recurs and maternal patience may be taxed. (Mariner et al, 1998)   Yes
Reciprocated exchange   Five-item scale that measures the relative frequency of social exchange within the neighborhood on issues of consequence for children.   Yes
Relationship with father   Respondent attitudes about father.   Pending
Relationship with mother   Respondent attitudes about mother.   Pending
Resident Disempowerment Scale   Measures how neighbors help one another and work together.   Yes
Resident fears of neighborhood violence   9-item scale.   Yes
Resident participation in neighborhood affairs   2-item scale.   Yes
Residential history   Respondent indicates reasons for selecting current neighborhood.   Pending
Responsive Police Scale   Describes community-police relations.   Yes
Retaliate   Reflects the degree to which caregivers perceive a risk of verbal or physical retaliation for intervening with other people's children.   Yes
Rootedness in block   Three items ask how long respondent has "lived at this address", whether home is owned or rented, and age of respondent.   Yes
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale   The scale is a ten item Likert scale with items answered on a four point scale - from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The RSE scale may be used without explicit permission. The author's family, however, would like to be kept informed of its use: The Morris Rosenberg Foundation c/o Dept. Of Sociology University of Maryland 2112 Art/Soc Building College Park, MD 20742-1315   Yes
Safe Neighborhood Scale   Perceived safety of public places.   Yes
Safety   Respondent perceptions of safety in the neighborhood.   Pending
Satisfaction with neighborhood   Asks about neighborhood satisfaction, block problems, and neighborhood conditions.   Yes
School environment   Opinions about perceived discipline, importance of grades, respect   Yes
School safety   Single item on whether or not the respondent "feels safe in school".   Pending
Schools   Items about school attendance, quality, transportation to school, and involvement by parents in school affairs.   Pending
Self-efficacy   Respondents are asked to estimate how well they can control their behavior and to rate their intelligence. Only respondents who are at least 15 years old are asked about their ability to take health-protective measures.   Yes
Sense of Belonging Scale   Neighborhood identification and pride   Yes
Sense of community   Questions about residential longevity, feelings of attachment and loyality to neighborhood and neighborhood boundaries.   Yes
Sense of Community   Respondent ratings of his/her sense of community and block importance.   Yes
Service activities   Questions about community service or volunteer activity in school or community.   Pending
Shopping and other community issues   Neighborhood transportation, shopping, and food quality .   Pending
Social cohesion and trust   Five-point Likert scale   Yes
Social Competence Subscale   The Social Competence Subscale of the Positive Child Behavior Scale was used in the National Evaluation of Welfare to Work Strategies, as in other evaluation studies, to assure that program effects on positive social behaviors (and not only effects on problem behaviors) could be assessed. The Positive Child Behavior Scale was developed by Denise Polit for the New Chance Evaluation (Polit, 1996), using modifications of items from existing scales so as to be appropriate for a sample of disadvantaged mothers.   Yes
Social environment   community volunteerism, perceptions of racism, experience of racism   No
Social supports: emotional support   Whether repondent has someone he/she can talk over problems with.   Yes
Social supports: socialization   Number, type and location of friends availabile to respondent.   Yes
Social Trust   Index of social trust combines trust of people in one's neighborhood, coworkers, shop clerks, co-religionists, local police, and "most people".   Yes
Socioeconomic data   Household roster.   Yes
Stop Delinquency   Refers to serious behaviors that are dangerous or lawbreaking.   Yes
Stop Misbehavior   Pertains to mischievous acts.   Yes
Summary assessment   Respondents are asked to provide a subjective assessment of the neighborhood in sum.   Pending
Trust in Government-related Institutions   6-item scale   Yes
Use of alcohol and drugs   Use and frequency of alcohol and other substances.   Pending
Vehicle inventory   Questions about personal vehicles and transportation.   Yes
Victimization   Resident degree of worry about becoming victims of crime and violence.   Yes
Voluntary associations   Involvement by residents in local religious organizations; neighborhood watch programs; block group, tenant associations, or community council; business or civic groups; ethnic or nationality clubs; and local political organizations.   Yes
Volunteer benefits   self-reported benefits from volunteer work   Pending
Volunteer contact with other agencies and organizations   Suggested reasons why a volunteer may chose NOT to contact another agency for help in serving families   Pending
Volunteer contact with other agencies and supports   Collaboration with other agencies/organizations to secure help for families   Pending
Volunteer demographics   volunteer sex, race, marital status, education, employment status, income, age   Pending
Volunteer importance   Questions as to why respondent has chosen to volunteer.   Pending
Volunteer neighborhood assessment   assessment of the neighborhood   Pending
Volunteer opinion about Department of Family Services (DFS)   volunteer opinion about Department of Family Services (DFS)   Pending
Volunteer opinion about how the neighborhood has changed in the last 2 years   volunteer opinion about how the neighborhood has changed in the last 2 years   Pending
Volunteer opinion about how to better get families involved   volunteer opinion about how to better get families involved   Pending
Volunteer scope of activity   How long have you volunteered, how many hours per week, how many days per month, reasons why you volunteer   Pending
Volunteer SLNN questions   Familiarity with SLNN (St. Louis Neighborhood Network), attendance at network workshops and training events, use of SLNN supports and/or resources   Pending
Volunteer type of activity   types of volunteer activities and frequencies of activities   Pending
Warmth   Interviewer-rated observations of parent behavior toward child.   Yes
Welfare Program Participation   Respondent's participation in welfare programs   Yes
Welfare use (HOPE VI)   Respondent participation in welfare programs   Pending
Work   Self and spouse work status and job location.   Yes
Younger child   Repondent reports of young child's experiences in the home and neighborhood.   Pending
Youth/Adult involvement in community service volunteerism   Participation in cultural/recreational activities.   Yes
Youth/Adult involvement in sports and other recreational activities   Participation in cultural/recreational activities.   Yes