Does Community Connection Vary between Different Segregated Neighborhoods?

Joseph Gibbons, Colgate University

There exists an active discussion as the effects of racial/ethnic diversity on community connection. Research has shown that racial/ethnic diversity inhibits community connection, which implies that racial segregation is beneficial to community connection. To explore this dynamic, we determine whether an individual's community connection is affected by the racial/ethnic segregation of their neighborhood. We implement multilevel models in HLM 7 using individual data from the 2008 and 2010 Philadelphia Health Management Corporation's Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey and census tract data from the 2010 Decennial Census and the 2006-2010 American Community Survey. We find that much of the disparities individuals face with community connection based on their race/ethnicity can be explained by neighborhood factors. While the overall socio-economic status of a neighborhood explains much of the variations in community connection, blacks living in predominantly white or mixed communities tend to have a weaker community connection.