Urban-regional ecology最新文献

{"title":"Organization of Psychosocial Processes in Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan Regions.","authors":"Shervin Assari, John Ashley Pallera","doi":"10.65773/ure.1.1.68","DOIUrl":"10.65773/ure.1.1.68","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Adolescents' social, emotional, and behavioral characteristics do not operate in isolation but form interconnected systems that shape well-being. These processes may differ across geographic settings, particularly between metropolitan (MSA) and non-metropolitan (non-MSA) environments, which vary in social norms, community resources, and daily experiences. However, little research has examined how these psychosocial factors are organized as part of a broader system in different environments.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study compared the structure of psychosocial networks among adolescents living in MSA and non-MSA settings. We aimed to identify whether social, emotional, and behavioral constructs cluster differently across environments and whether specific constructs show stronger influence or bridging roles within each network.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Data were drawn from the 2023 Monitoring the Future survey of U.S. adolescents. Twelve psychosocial and behavioral constructs were examined, including emotional distress, self-esteem, positive well-being, social connectedness, sensation seeking, boredom, problem behaviors, and perceived parental and peer disapproval of substance use, and substance use. Separate correlation-based networks were generated for MSA and non-MSA youth. System-level measures (average degree, betweenness, eigenvector centrality) were used to assess overall structure, and node-level metrics identified constructs serving as central or bridging elements within each network.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Emotional distress, sensation seeking, and problem behaviors played stronger bridging roles in non-MSA than MSA environments. In contrast, MSA networks were more evenly distributed, with positive well-being, social connectedness, and parental or peer disapproval showing stronger central influence.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Different organization of psychosocial processes across environments can inform context-sensitive strategies to support adolescent well-being.</p>","PeriodicalId":521210,"journal":{"name":"Urban-regional ecology","volume":"1 1","pages":"37-49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12823145/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146032699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}