Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN)

This project was designed to study the role neighborhoods play in developmental pathways towards social and academic competence and antisocial behavior. In collaboration with child psychiatrists, criminologists, and statisticians from Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan, researchers at the Center followed 6,500 children, ranging in ages from birth through 18. The children come from diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and were selected to represent a broad array of neighborhoods in Chicago. They were seen at three timepoints over approximately 6 years. In addition, a community survey was conducted with residents in the neighborhoods in which the children lived. Additional information on their neighborhoods was collected through systematic observation.

This study provides community leaders, policy makers, researchers, and families with a better understanding of the ways in which neighborhoods influence the lives and well-being of children.

Several follow-up research projects have been completed using the data from the PHDCN study:

Parenting and Adolescent Risk Behavior in Context; Young Children’s Self-Regulation in a Multilevel Context; Neighborhood Context and Adolescent Psychological and Behavioral Health; Life Course and HIV; Multilevel Study of Young Children’s Emotional Health: Individual, Family, and Neighborhood Influences; Children’s Exposure to Violence Over Space and Time; and Immigrant Differences in School-Age Children’s Verbal Trajectories.

Funding Sources: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; National Institute of Justice; National Institute of Mental Health; NICHD; Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education; Child Care Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Contact: Anne Martin, Dr.P.H.