Date of Award
Spring 5-2012
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Program
Urban Studies
Department
Planning and Urban Studies
Major Professor
Jeffrey Ehrenreich
Second Advisor
David Gladstone
Third Advisor
John Renne
Fourth Advisor
Martha Ward
Fifth Advisor
Bret Peters
Abstract
The extant literature on the play behavior of youth normalizes adolescent behavior in public space as transgressional, resistant, and in need of social control. The dissertation counters this trend by looking to see if physical qualities, peer effects, and neighborhood context of settings play a deeper role in youth behavior. The study documented urban context, peer effects, physical features, and play behavior across 21 urban settings in New Orleans. Unobtrusive observations employed a highly innovative technique based on YouTube videos and analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Coded observations of risk-taking and prosocial behavior demonstrated some stability in behavior amongst adolescents—“youth” ages 12-19—within each site, suggesting that site-specific factors can constrain youth behavior. Yet, more interesting, teens appropriated sites. Specifically, the study found that (a) adolescents consistently adapt play behavior due to settings and (b) that adolescents adapt sites to support play behavior. The latter finding is novel and diverges from normative theory on adolescent behavior by suggesting that teens exercise interdependence when engaging in urban environments away from home and school. Interdependence is a term derived from economics that means mutual dependence upon others for some needs. That adolescents display increased risk-taking behavior in environments with low appropriation and increased prosocial behavior in environments with high appropriation advocates for cities to support adolescent appropriation of urban space.
Recommended Citation
Shirtcliff, Benjamin A., "Deep play, urban space, adolescent place: a multi-sited study of the effects of settings on adolescent risk/reward behavior" (2012). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1481.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1481
Included in
Environmental Design Commons, Human Geography Commons, Landscape Architecture Commons, Other Psychology Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons, Urban Studies Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.