University Sociology Research: Academic Performance and Neighborhoods

This sociology research paper investigates the impact of neighborhood types (urban, suburban, and rural) on academic performance, considering race and socioeconomic factors as confounding variables. The study employs social disorganization and social capital theories to explore the influence of neighborhood characteristics on educational outcomes. The research includes a comprehensive literature review, a detailed methodology section outlining the study design, participants, and data analysis techniques (correlation and regression analysis). The paper presents the results, acknowledges limitations, and suggests future research directions, concluding with a discussion of the relationship between neighborhood types and academic achievement, as well as the implications for educational policies. The study aims to address the research questions by testing the hypothesis that academic performance is affected by the type of neighborhood students live in.

Running Head : SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
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SOCIOLOGY 1
Abstract
There has been several studies examining as well as analyzing the impacts of the neighborhoods
over the educational attainments of children. However the result of the studies are often in
dilemma and are being conflicted with the use of the independent variable of educational climate
and social disorganization. Understanding related to the working within the neighborhood is
dependable over numerous social mechanisms which is furthermore used for defining the
characteristics of neighborhood that are explanatory essential features regarding the outcomes of
education. This study aims to identify if academic performance is influenced and affected due to
the reason of the categories and the types of neighborhood where students resides, specifically
targeting the urban, suburban and the rural neighborhoods

SOCIOLOGY 2
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Statement of Problem..................................................................................................................3
Rationale of the study..................................................................................................................4
Research Objective......................................................................................................................6
Literature Review............................................................................................................................6
Social Disorganization theory......................................................................................................6
Social capital theory....................................................................................................................7
Existing Literature Review..........................................................................................................8
Neighborhood factors..................................................................................................................8
Family Factors.............................................................................................................................9
Parenting styles..........................................................................................................................10
Factors of school........................................................................................................................11
Student factors...........................................................................................................................12
Gap in Literature........................................................................................................................12
Methodology..................................................................................................................................13
Ethical consideration.................................................................................................................14
Research Instrument......................................................................................................................15
Elements for Preliminary Analysis Section...................................................................................15
Statistical analysis......................................................................................................................15
Correlation Analysis..................................................................................................................16
Correlations................................................................................................................................16
Regression Analysis...................................................................................................................18
Results............................................................................................................................................30
Limitations.................................................................................................................................30
Future direction..............................................................................................................................31
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................32
References......................................................................................................................................33

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Introduction
Population shaped by environment they reside is an essential and recurrent question
which is often debated in the field of social science. Research studies have been conducted to
investigate the influence over social, health, and cognitive as well as behavioral outcomes by
places they reside. This research study focuses mainly over the children and the adolescents
residing in the urban, suburban and rural areas of United States with the outcomes of education
as the key area of the interest (Gietz and McIntosh, 2014). The factor of neighborhood is
specifically relevant for the adolescents and young people since majority of them spend their
time for socializing, residing, participation at local activities. Thus these adolescents and children
tends to have several interactions at a daily basis with the adults and the services where their
attitudes, behaviors as well as the opportunities is the part that is majorly shaped within the
setting. The debate regarding the improvement of academic achievement of population residing
in advantaged area rather than the disadvantaged area seems to be a never-ending topic.
Statement of Problem
The past decades have witnessed an increase regarding the number of studies the topic of
the impact of neighborhood over the residential area of the people followed by its effects over
the socio economic opportunities within their life, specifically the educational achievement.
Relevant policy attention regarding this subject has furthermore resulted in the foundation and
the development of several neighborhood policies targeting the idea of the characteristics of
neighborhood that have an impact over the residents (Flouri et al., 2015). However, irrespective
of the widespread attention regarding this dilemma, there exist uncertainty regarding how the
context of neighborhood effects the residents and the importance of interaction among the

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residents over the characteristics of neighborhood which thoroughly influences the neighborhood
individual. Research Context
According to the researchers, the understanding related to the working within the
neighborhood is dependable over numerous social mechanisms which is furthermore used for
defining the characteristics of neighborhood that are explanatory essential features regarding the
outcomes of education (Flouri, Papachristou & Midouhas, 2019). The commonly used
characteristics are mainly poverty of neighborhood, the climate of education, proportion of
ethnic or migrants group of people and the disorganization with the society. One of the major
social mechanism that is being cited is the contagion that illustrated the extent towards which the
population are being influenced by the attitudes and the behavior of the neighbors. According to
Kintrea, St Clair & Houston (2015), collective socialization is another mechanism which is
connected to contagion which explains the collective capability of population for coping up with
the social challenges in the neighborhood by the influence of the neighborhood behaviors.
Neighborhoods which showcases better and higher level of willingness and social cohesion for
intervening in undesirable situations, the residents residing within tends to enforce specific
norms in a more better way, like the norms related to pro learning and the norms assessing the
essentiality of education towards the future opportunities of a person.
Rationale of the study
Several study over the review of literature attempted to illustrate and summarize the
context of the impacts of neighborhoods over the outcomes of education, together with giving a
thorough insight over the essentiality of neighborhoods, the procedure or mechanism, on the
basis of which neighborhoods try to exert their influences as well as the methodologies which
can be utilized within the field of research. However, none of the research studies focused over

SOCIOLOGY 5
the relationship of the academic or the educational performance and the types of neighborhood,
categorizing the suburban, urban and the rural categories. Studies did not explain the great
diversity among the population connected to the factor and the cofounding variables of race and
socio economic factors within the neighborhood types which might impact the academic
performances.
According to Vyncke et al., (2013), due to the economic constraints, unprivileged or
poor families tends to reside in poor and underdeveloped areas as compared to the richer families
which highlights the gap or the variation among the families. Poor and underprivileged families
residing mostly in the rural and the suburban areas tends to lac proper access to the economic
and the cultural resources which is required for helping the children of the household to succeed
within the environment of school and also lead the children towards exhibiting lower attainment
of education.
This study takes in consideration of the relevant variables for the research purpose. This includes
both the dependent and the independent variables. The independent one being the neighborhood
types followed by the cofounding variables within it that is race and socio economic factors. The
dependent variables for this research study is the academic performance. For this research study,
the researcher is taking consideration the black, white and the Hispanic race within the types of
neighborhood selected. That is the urban, suburban and rural type. Regarding the choice of the
theories that will be used in this research study, the study will use integrated framework related
toe social disorganization theory as well as the social capital theory for the examination of the
influence and the impact of the interpersonal relation among the family, neighborhood towards
the examination of the effect over the academic achievement for the effective e understanding of
the role towards assessing the accountability efforts of the school.

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Research Objective
The aim or the objective of this study is to identify the connection or the relationship
among the academic performance and the types of the neighborhood considered for the research.
This includes the types of the urban, suburban and the rural categories of neighborhood. The
study furthermore aims to understand if academic performance is influenced and affected due to
the reason of the categories and the types of neighborhood where students resides, specifically
targeting the urban, suburban and the rural neighborhoods.
The study investigates the following research questions
 What is the relationship between academic performance and urban neighborhood type?
 What is the relationship between academic performance and suburban neighborhood
type?
 What is the relationship between academic performance and rural neighborhood type?
These questions that has been considered for the research study will be addressed through the
entire study by the method of hypothesis testing illustrated below.
H0 - Academic performance is affected due to the types of neighborhoods that students live in
H1 - Academic performance is not affected due to the types of neighborhoods that students live
in
Literature Review
Social Disorganization theory
The social disorganization theory illustrates the broader context of society where the
students, schools and families tend to operate. The theory illustrates the characteristics of the

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structure of neighborhood, which is the exogenous component which have a detrimental impact
over the social organization where several of the population reside (Bruinsma et al., 2013). This
theory is primarily used for the evaluation of several crimes and the rate of juvenile delinquency.
The theory includes three of major stages of the developed. These are the traditional model of
social disorganization, systematic model of social disorganization and the contemporary model
of social disorganization. According to Scott (2007), the traditional model of social
disorganization illustrate how the factor of racial heterogeneity, economic deprivation and the
mobility of residence leads towards a major decrease in the social control which decreases the
probability of educational attainment among pupil and increases the probability of them to get
involved in the crimes. The traditional model was furthermore revitalized towards a systemic
model that included the variables helping the explanation of relation among the exogenous
factors included in the neighborhood characteristics as well as the social sector that is informal.
As stated by Kubrin & Wo (2016), the model incorporates several elements which posits the
essentiality of social networking towards mediating the impacts of the structural constraints of
neighborhood which leads to lack of educational attachments and increase in the crime rates.
Finally, as per Cramm, Møller & Nieboer (2012), the contemporary model of the social
disorganization expands the usage of the social capital theory for the identification of the major
mechanisms here the social networks tends to facilitate the informal rate of social control,
followed by mediating the detrimental impacts of the social constraints of neighborhood.
Social capital theory
Social capital theory can be illustrated from three different concepts. The first was
derived from the Coleman (1988) which provided the normative theory related to the society.
The second was derived from the work by Bourdieu (1985) towards the explanation of the

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context for the development of the society’s critical theory. The third was derived from the work
of Lin (2001) and Burt (2001) which offers network based theory related to society. All of these
perspectives have a very common definition related to the concept of social capital. According to
(), social capital is inherent within the social relations and is furthermore governed by trust and
social cohesion. The functions of the social capital theory includes benefits of family mediation,
sources related to informal social control and benefits related to extra familial benefits (Vyncke
et al., 2013). Thus the theory of the social capital in this context acts as the resource which
provides the way for bridging the community, individual; and the relationship of institution.
Regarding the purpose of this research study, the concept of social capital can be conceived as
the multidimensional function that encompasses several aspects of structure of society, which
foster the potential benefit towards group and individuals. According to Crosnoe (2004), it is
thoroughly evident social capital theory can be viewed as the conceptual link for helping for
extending the social disorganization theory. The theory furthermore posits that thorough sharing
of data and mutual obligations and social trust develops social cohesion and trust which
furthermore leads to the neighbor’s willingness for intervening on behalf of the neighborhood
children.
Existing Literature Review
The main aim of the following review of literature is to outline as well as examine the
empirical test which analyses the relation or the connection among family, parents, neighborhood
, school as well as factors of students with their influence over the educational achievement and
the outcomes among the youth and adult population.

SOCIOLOGY 9
Neighborhood factors
A large adolescent population are majorly disengaged within the time as per their
experiences of education since many of them eventually drop out of their school as their
consequences. According to Thompson (2002), adolescents enjoying harmonious, supportive and
egalitarian environments at home are prepared better for availing the benefit from the
educational experiences or schooling. Youth or adolescent individual who develops successfully
tend to reflect an interconnected and resourceful community. The attachment of the students
within their neighborhood forms via the interaction with the residents of the neighborhood and
furthermore contributes to the conformity of students which includes appropriate norms as well
as expectations leading to positive outcomes of education (Forehand et al., 1986). As per the
current research, the adverse structural constraints like the residential instability, poverty and
ethnic heterogeneity undermines the social relationships within the neighborhood. This
furthermore results ineffective methods and social ties among population specifically in the
suburban areas towards informal social control (Shumow, Vandell & Posner, 1999). In the
suburban types of neighborhood, the categories of adult role model that the local youth are being
exposed to, tends to shape the development of positive attitude, proper education attainment and
behavior towards academic engagement. This is because in the suburban areas, the majority of
the population residing have challenges related to their socio economic factors followed by low
literacy rate (Thiele et al., 2016). However very few percentage of people residing in the
suburban areas live in advantage with proper social status. Another factor in the neighborhood
that impacts over the endearment among the people as well as their knowledge towards
educational attainment is the race. The suburban areas is majorly populated by black people.

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Family Factors
The involvement of the family plays a very important and essential and significant role
towards academic and the educational success of the students. As stated by Brück, Di Maio &
Miaari (2014) in the research paper, parents are the tool or the instrument that provides data
related to the future opportunities and education, furthermore establishing the norms related to
the achievement and the expected behavior as well as the assistance towards navigating through
the system of academic achievement (Prom-Jackson, Johnson & Wallace,1987). It is to note that
the interaction of the parent and the student is the key and the fundamental mechanism which
provides the student with support as well as information for their academic achievement or
success. According to Casanova et al., (2015), educational standards and employment situation
of parents have majorly been considered as the fundamental factors towards the understanding of
the differences in the academic performance of the students. Students belonging from the most
disadvantaged and challenging socio economic contexts with very low economical resources
tends to fail or repeat in their academic courses. In respect to the educational status of the
members of the families, the performance tends to lower among students from families having
zero to negligible literacy level. According to the research studies, this situation is mainly
attached and associated with parents or the family members having very less involvement
towards the schooling process of children since they give very less importance towards good
achievements in school (Rodríguez-Rodríguez & Guzmán, 2019). The expectations of the
parents furthermore is another factor where the influence over the context of the family over the
performances have been thoroughly investigated. According to Santín & Sicilia (2016), family
composition is another researched factor which determined the academic differences. According
the current studies, children belonging from single parent families specifically in the urban areas

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tends to have very low academic performance due to the low and poor involvement and
engagement of the family members.
Parenting styles
The parenting styles have been shown constantly to connect to several outcomes like
youth behavioral challenges, psychology and the academic performances. Among the several
conceptualization of parenting, majority focused over the qualities and the quantities of
responsiveness, warmth as well as the control of the repertoire of parenting. As stated in Gangolu
(2019), there are three majorly identified styles of parenting. These are permissive, authoritative
and authoritarian. While the authoritative parenting is generally characterized by major level of
sensitivity, involvement as well as the encouragement of the autonomy. The permissive
parenting technique on the other hand is generally characterized by exhibition of non controlling
behaviors as well as the use of minimal punishments. Authoritarian parenting techniques on the
other hand tends to fall within the end of continuum. These techniques of parenting includes
directive behaviors of natures, higher level of restriction and rejected set of behaviors. As per the
work of Turner, Chandler & Heffer (2009), there lies four approaches towards the impact of
parenting over the achievement of the youth and the children. These includes the role of the
parents are the decision maker, parents being the supporter , parents as the teacher and the
parents as the mediator. Parenting and the techniques that the parents used for supporting the
children contributes majorly over the academic achievement of the student.
Factors of school
According to Im-Bolter, Yaghoub Zadeh & Ling (2013), the system of school play a very
important role towards the development of the children by the provision of a positive