ABSTRACT
Though the physical and emotional resources within homes clearly influence adolescent health and well-being, the surrounding physical area and its social milieu, loosely understood as the residential neighborhood, also plays a role. In fact, poor health outcomes cluster at various levels of area aggregation from country to census block group [1], [2]. Characteristics of these contextual areas (such as collective efficacy and poverty rates) based on or derived with various schemes of area aggregation are often observed to spatially correlate with health outcomes [3], [4]. Although past research tends to identify a general correlation between the qualities
of neighborhoods where adolescents live and their health, how specific sociogeographic contexts outside their homes influence this relationship remains unclear [5].
