The case for studying multiple contexts simultaneously.

Individuals live in multiple social contexts simultaneously, whether they be family, peer, neighborhood, school or work contexts. In individual lives, it is likely that the forces within any one context that promote healthy human development are correlated with whatever causal forces operate to the same end in other contexts. This paper explores why it is important to consider social contexts, not singly as in traditional neighborhood or school or work-site research, but in combination.