Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115664

Janice Zinn, BS and Flavius R. W. Lilly, MPH. Department of Community Health Improvement, Hanover Hospital, 400 York Street, Hanover, PA 17331, 717-633-2248, ZinnJ@hanoverhospital.org

OBJECTIVE: To identify factors that are associated with adolescent health behaviors that lead to delinquency and diminished health status in a rural community (population 45,000) in central Pennsylvania. METHODS: The Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTCYS) was administered to 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th grade students (N=1,310; 50.9% male; 89.6% white) from two school districts. The CTCYS was developed from research funded by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The CTCYS was designed to measure: 1) risk factors that predict alcohol, tobacco, drug use, delinquency, and gang involvement; 2) the prevalence and frequency of drug use; and 3) the prevalence and frequency of antisocial behaviors. RESULTS: Health risk factors are aggregately reported and stratified by grade and organized into twenty-one (21) descriptive domains. The domains are rank ordered by most significant risk factors in the community and 25% of adolescents reported that they were unattached to their neighborhoods and that the community was in disarray or disorganized. Across grade levels, scores for Low Neighborhood Attachment and Community Disorganization respectively range from a low of 39 and 48 among 6th graders to high of 58 among 12th graders and high of 63 among 10th graders (Scale: 0 = no attachment, high disorganization and 100 = extreme attachment, low disorganization) CONCLUSION: Higher rates of drug usage, delinquency and violence occur in communities or neighborhoods where people feel little attachment to the community and attributes of the community are disorganized, representing significant opportunity for primary prevention and community building initiatives.

Learning Objectives:

• Articulate environmental factors associated with delinquency and poor health status among adolescents.
• Recognize link between community disorganization/design and drug usage and violence.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.