Actively Neighboring across Race: A Latent Class Analysis of Neighboring Styles and Inclusive Neighboring

Background: Neighboring includes daily interactions and the exchange of social support among individuals living in residential proximity.  Neighboring has been associated with a variety of positive outcomes including increased social cohesion, increased resident participation with local organizations, and stronger community attachment.  However, research also suggests that individuals living in diverse neighborhoods not only neighbor less, but can experience what is referred to as incorporated exclusion.  Incorporated exclusion occurs when individuals living in close proximity to each other reproduce marginalization and experience withdrawal and alienation rather than engagement, equity, and inclusion.

Method:  Data for this study are drawn from the Seattle Neighborhoods and Crime Survey (SNCS).  Neighboring activities are measured using seven items that assess how frequently a respondent performs various neighboring activities (e.g. borrow tools, have dinner, talk).  One item will assess how frequently these neighboring activities occur with an individual of another race.  Latent class analysis (LCA) will be used to assess whether there are patterns in terms of the frequency of neighboring, and the frequency that neighboring occurs across race.  Predictors of neighboring across race will then be explored.

Results:  Cases with missing data were removed using listwise deletion, resulting in a sample of 2,797 individuals.  The average age of the sample was 46.9 years of age, over two-thirds of the sample (70.5%, n = 1,972) were employed, 51.5% (n = 1,440) were earning between $25,000 and $75,000 annually, two-thirds (66.8%, n = 1,868) owned their home, 54.6% (n = 1,526) were married or cohabiting, nearly 80% (79.8%, n = 2,232) identified as white.

Findings from the LCA supports a three class solution.  Class one (n = 555, 19.8%) is labeled “actively neighboring across race,” and is comprised of individuals who report neighboring “often” on nearly all neighboring behaviors, but also neighbor across race “often” (42.6%) or “sometimes” (38.9%).  Class two (n = 1,402, 50.1%) is labeled “neighboring” because respondents typically reported that they “sometimes” performed the seven neighboring activities and “sometimes” (50.6%) or rarely (27.7%) performed these neighboring activities across race.  Class three (n = 840, 30.1%), labeled “reluctant neighbors,” is comprised of individuals who rarely neighbor, and rarely neighbor across race (59.7%).

In terms of predictors of class membership; a longer tenure in the neighborhood, higher education, being female, owning a home, and being married were associated with higher log odds of being in the actively neighboring across race and neighboring classes compared to the reluctant neighbor class.  Longer tenure in the neighborhood and being white, female, and married were significant predictors of being in the actively neighboring across race class compared to the neighboring class.

Conclusions:  The findings suggest that there are three classes of neighboring.  Although the findings were able to identify factors that distinguish individuals who neighbor from those who do not; more research is needed to explore why some neighbors are more intentional about neighboring across race.  Uncovering methods of facilitating neighboring across race is a critical step in terms of racial equity, equal opportunity, and social justice.