Journal
POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT
Volume 37, Issue 1, Pages 1-21Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11111-014-0228-x
Keywords
Air pollution; Built environment; Neighborhood stigma; Neighborhood health disparities; Walkability; Environmental justice
Categories
Funding
- Michigan Center for Integrative Approaches to Health Disparities - National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities [P60MD002249]
- NICHD Center [R24 HD041028]
- Research Participation Program for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development
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Substantial research documents higher pollution levels in minority neighborhoods, but little research evaluates how residents perceive their own communities' pollution risks. According to neighborhood stigma theory, survey respondents share a cultural bias that minorities cause social dysfunction, leading to over-reports of dysfunction in minority communities. This study investigates perceptions of residential outdoor air quality by linking objective data on built and social environments with multiple measures of pollution and a representative survey of Chicago residents. Consistent with the scholarly narrative, results show that air quality is rated worse where minorities and poverty are concentrated, even after extensive adjustment for objective pollution and built environment measures. Perceptions of air pollution may thus be driven by neighborhood socioeconomic position far more than by respondents' ability to perceive pollution. The finding that 63.5 % of the sample reported excellent or good air quality helps to explain current challenging in promoting environmental action.
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