Are Nonprofit Density and Nonprofit Expenditures Related to Youth Deviance?

This study explores whether neighborhoods with greater nonprofit density (nonprofits per mile) and/or larger nonprofit expenditures (nonprofit expenditures per 10,000 people) interact with social control to experience lower levels of adolescent deviancy. Data include cross-sectional surveys of 1,541 youth. The data are analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). The dependent variable is a measure of deviance that is the sum of ten items, which assess deviant behaviors. For analysis the square root of this measure is used to adjust for negatively skewed data. The sample was drawn through a two stage-geostatistical sampling procedure, with the final sample including 50 zip codes throughout California. The study finds that adolescents' deviance is not associated with an interaction between social control and either nonprofit density or nonprofit expenditures. However, the analysis found strong positive associations between being male, being older, having higher levels of mean social control and the square root of deviance.