RT Article
T1 Within‑neighbourhood changes of collective efficacy: longitudinal measurement invariance and association with changing ethnic diversity
JF International criminology
VO 5
IS 3
SP 379
OP 399
A1 Oberwittler, Dietrich 1963-
A1 Gerstner, Dominik
A1 Natter, Lisa
A2 Gerstner, Dominik
A2 Natter, Lisa
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1940761611
AB In neighbourhood research, the concept of collective efficacy has been particularly successful in capturing key dimensions of the social fabric of communities, i.e. social cohesion and expectations for social control actions amongst residents. Yet, very few scholars have studied collective efficacy over time, looking at the social dynamics of neighbourhood development, and none has tested for longitudinal measurement invariance. We use a repeated cross-sectional survey of residents conducted in 2014 and 2020 in 139 neighbourhoods in Cologne and Essen (Germany) to analyse the measurement invariance of the scale collective efficacy. Applying multilevel CFA, previous analyses have shown that this scale has two separate latent dimensions on the individual level of respondents – social cohesion and informal social control – but just one latent dimension on the collective level of neighbourhoods (Gerstner et al., Social Indicators Research 144:1151–1177, 2019). We test for longitudinal measurement invariance of collective efficacy in the framework of multilevel CFA, and in a second step, explore the covarying changes of collective efficacy and sociodemographic indicators. We find scalar measurement invariance and only small changes of collective efficacy over time which, however, are significantly related to changes in ethnic diversity: increases in ethnic diversity are associated with slight decreases in collective efficacy, supporting both classic social disorganization theory as well as Robert Putnam’s ‘hunkering down’ hypothesis.
NO Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 396-399
K1 Collective efcacy
K1 Neighbourhoods ·
K1 Migration
K1 Ethnic Diversity
K1 Random efects models
K1 Longitudinal Analysis
DO 10.1007/s43576-025-00186-0