Personnel and Training Required

No specific training is needed if data are collected through a self-administered questionnaire. If interviewers administer the questionnaire, the interviewer must be trained to conduct personal interviews with individuals from the general population and found competent to administer these particular questions (i.e., tested by an expert) at the completion of this training. The interviewer should be trained to prompt respondents further if a "don’t know" response is provided.

Equipment Needs

These questions can be administered in a computerized or noncomputerized format (i.e., paper-and pencil instrument). Computer software is necessary to develop computer-assisted instruments. The interviewer will require a laptop computer or handheld computer to administer or to allow the respondent to self-administer a computer-assisted questionnaire.

Requirements

Mode of Administration

Interviewer-administered questionnaire

Lifestage

Adult

Participants

Adults, aged 18 years and older

Selection Rationale

The Mujahid et al. (2007) scale was selected for its brevity and because it taps into both feelings about safety and presence of crime. This scale has strong psychometric properties, and prior studies have shown that subjective measures of crime and disorder are correlated with their objective counterparts (Elo et al., 2009). Additionally, objective crime measures (e.g., geocoded police department records, national crime statistics at the neighborhood level) are not uniformly available across the United States.

Language

Chinese, English, Other languages available at source

Standards

Derived Variables

None

Process and Review

Not applicable

Protocol Name from Source

Mujahid, M. S., et al, Assessing the measurement properties of neighborhood scales: From psychometrics to ecometrics. AM J EPIDEMIOL, 2007

Source

Mujahid, M. S., Diez Roux, A. V., Morenoff, J. D., & Raghunathan, T. (2007). Assessing the measurement properties of neighborhood scales: From psychometrics to ecometrics. American Journal of Epidemiology, 165, 858-867.

General References

Elo, I. T., Mykyta, L., Margolis, R., & Culhane, J. F. (2009). Perceptions of neighborhood disorder: The role of individual and neighborhood characteristics. Social Science Quarterly, 90, 1039-1422.

Morenoff, J. (2003). Neighborhood mechanisms and the spatial dynamics of birth weight. American Journal of Sociology, 108, 976-1017.

Protocol ID

210901

Variables

Measure Name

Neighborhood Safety

Release Date

October 8, 2010

Definition

This measure is a questionnaire to assess the respondent’s perceptions about safety and crime in their neighborhoods.

Purpose

This measure is used to evaluate a respondent’s feelings toward neighborhood-level crime and safety. Studies show that neighborhood safety is relevant to a range of health outcomes, such as birth weight (Morenoff, 2003).

Keywords

Social environments, neighborhood safety, violence, community

Measure Protocols

Publications

Stevens, S. K., Williams, D. P., Pressman, S. D., Hanif, M., Jovanovic, T., Norrholm, S., and Zalta, A. K. (2025) Investigating Associations Between Neighborhood Characteristics and Fear Learning Processes in Female Survivors of Childhood Abuse Psychophysiology. 2025 December; 62(12): 11. doi: 10.1111/psyp.70204

Prabhu, J., Acosta, S., Savorgnan, F., Annapragada, A. V., and Sethuraman, U. (2025) Social Determinants of Health Patterns in Children with Severe Disease Due to SARS-CoV-2 Infection-An Exploratory Approach Children-Basel. 2025 November; 12(11): 1515. doi: 10.3390/children12111515

Zhang, R., Schwandt, M. L., Vines, L., and Volkow, N. D. (2025) Changes in Rest-Activity Rhythms in Adolescents as They Age: Associations With Brain and Behavioral Changes in the ABCD Study Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2025 September; 64(9): 1056-1067. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2024.11.005

Kim, C., et al. (2025) Impact of manganese and metal mixtures in blood, hair, and soil on child adaptive behaviors in Southeast Side Chicago Environmental Research. 2025 August; 278: 12. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2025.121637

Hawes, M. R., et al. (2025) The Healthy Homes Study: Protocol for a cluster randomized trial of a place-based smoke-free home intervention in affordable housing. PLoS One. 2025 July; 20(7): e0328786. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328786

Breslin, F. J., et al. (2025) Measuring adversity in the ABCD® Study: systematic review and recommendations for best practices BMC Medical Research Methodology. 2025 March; 25(1): 77. doi: 10.1186/s12874-025-02521-5

Murchland, A. R., Koenen, K. C. and Hayes-Larson, E. (2025) The link between traumatic experiences and health in late life: challenges and opportunities for US-based longitudinal aging cohorts Am J Epidemiol. 2025 March; 194(3): 565-572. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwae278

Tang, J. T., Saadi, A., Dunn, E. C. and Choi, K. (2025) Concordance in Child-Parent Reporting of Social Victimization Experiences in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study Academic Pediatrics. 2025 January; 25(1): 9. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2022.09.018

Cioffredi, L. A., et al. (2024) Assessing prenatal and early childhood social and environmental determinants of health in the HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study (HBCD) Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 2024 October; 69: 101429. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101429

Feraco, T. and Cona, G. (2024) Happy children! A network of psychological and environmental factors associated with the development of positive affect in 9-13 children PLoS One. 2024 September; 19(9): e0307560. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307560

McCurry, K., et al. (2024) Data-driven, generalizable prediction of adolescent sleep disturbances in the multisite Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Sleep. 2024 June; 47(6). doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsae048

Saadi, A., et al. (2024) Examining the Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Lifetime History of Head or Neck Injury and Concussion in Children From the United States Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. 2024 May; 39(3): E113-E121. doi: 10.1097/HTR.0000000000000883

Korn, A. R., C. Walsh-Bailey, M. Pilar, B. Sandler, P. Bhattacharjee, W. T. Moore, R. C. Brownson, K. M. Emmons, and A. Y. Oh. (2022) Social Determinants of Health and Cancer Screening Implementation and Outcomes in the USA: A Systematic Review Protocol. Syst Rev. 2022 June; 11(1). doi: 10.1186/s13643-022-01995-4

Gonzalez, R., et al. (2021) An update on the assessment of culture and environment in the ABCD Study (R): Emerging literature and protocol updates over three measurement waves. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 2021 December; 52: 101021. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.101021

Wade, N. E., et al. (2021) Risk factors associated with curiosity about alcohol use in the ABCD cohort. Alcohol. 2021 May; 92: 11-19. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2021.01.002

Moore, T. M., et al. (2020) Development of a scale battery for rapid assessment of risk and resilience. Psychiatry Research. 2020 June; 288: 10. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112996

Zhang, H., et al. (2020) Parental and social factors in relation to child psychopathology, behavior, and cognitive function. Translational Psychiatry. 2020 February; 10(1): Article number: 80. doi: 10.1038/s41398-020-0761-6

Zucker, R. A, et al. (2018) Assessment of culture and environment in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study: Rationale, description of measures, and early data. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2018 August; 32: 107-120. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2018.03.004

Ortiz, A. P., et al. (2015) Methods in HPV Surveillance: Experiences from a Population-Based Study of HPV Infection among Women in the San Juan Metropolitan Area of Puerto Rico. P R Health Sci J. 2015 September; 34(3): 117-27.

FHIR

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