Using cross-classified multilevel models to disentangle school and neighborhood effects: an example focusing on smoking behaviors among adolescents in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite much interest in understanding the influence of contexts on health, most research has focused on one context at a time, ignoring the reality that individuals have simultaneous memberships in multiple settings.

Method

Using the example of smoking behavior among adolescents in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we applied cross-classified multilevel modeling (CCMM) to examine fixed and random effects for schools and neighborhoods. We compared the CCMM results with those obtained from a traditional multilevel model (MLM) focused on either the school and neighborhood separately.

Results

In the MLMs, 5.2% of the variation in smoking was due to differences between neighborhoods (when schools were ignored) and 6.3% of the variation in sm

SUBMITTER: Dunn EC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4443928 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature