Community Social Organization as a Predictor of Mortality: Analyzing Chicago Neighborhoods

Abstract

This research explores the relationship between community social organization and neighborhood rates of mortality. Community social organization is a latent term that captures a variety of social interactions between residents that bring individuals together, providing an opportunity for a collective response to perceived neighborhood problems. Drawing from social disorganization theory, I suggest that more efficacious communities should have lower rates of mortality, particularly for youth. Using survey and secondary data for Chicago neighborhoods, I find that social organization (measured as collective efficacy) has a strong protective effect in terms of reducing youth death rates. The impact of collective efficacy holds for both preventable and health-related youth mortality. Results suggest that neighbors may contribute to protecting the lives of youth by helping mobilize residents to engage in community social organization.