Text Size
April 2008 | Home
U-M Heritage
Professor White's Trees
Do you love the Diag, with its criss-cross paths and canopy of trees? If so, you have one man to thank. The story of Andrew White, who nurtured intellects and seedlings alike.
Most emailed stories
- Exactly how much housework does a husband create?
- U-M Heritage: How to date women, circa 1943
- University of Michigan 2008 Graduation (Story and Video) | Michigan Today
HEALTH
Spring cleaning for your nose
Allergies? Sinus problems? A good schnozz-cleaning is literally just what the doctor ordered. Here's how to do it.
Talking about words
Trophies
Our language guru considers "signes of victorye" from the Stanley Cup to Ashton Kutcher.
Talking about movies
The talkies' first great screenwriter
Dudley Nichols gave John Wayne some of his best lines, and his screwball writing for Hepburn and Grant remains hilarious. If you want to know movies, you need to know about Nichols.
U-M IN THE WORLD
An undeclared crisis
The US now incarcerates more people than any other country. More than one percent of the US population is behind bars. U-M profs say there's a better way.
Michigan Today is a monthly online magazine for alumni and friends of U-M.
Search
Michigan Today
Letters to the editor
Your U-M history
Alumni notes
Alumni Books and Arts
Archives
U-M Events
Update your contact information
Unsubscribe
Contact Us
research news
Urban kids who feel safe look to future, avoid danger
March 27, 2008
New research shows that urban middle school students who felt safe in their neighborhoods were better able to resist instant gratification, and in turn engaged in fewer violent and other risky behaviors.
In a study, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health surveyed students in two Flint, Mich., middle schools. Researchers assessed positive and negative neighborhood experiences, time perspective, and tendencies for violence and property crimes.
The ability to delay gratification is thought to have a large impact on an individual's life, including psychological health and economic success. This study showed that youth who felt safe and experienced fewer negative neighborhood events were less likely to engage in violent and destructive behavior. This relationship hinged, however, on the sense that good things come to those who are patient and make an effort even if they do not benefit right away.
"It is not just that people imitate the environment around them," said Daniel Kruger, research scientist in the U-M School of Public Health and lead author of the study. "Neighborhood social experiences actually change one's psychology, and this influences their behavioral patterns." If youths feel that their environment is too unsafe to expect their efforts to pay off far in the future, they will look for instant gratification.
Neighborhood interventions that provide a greater feeling of safety and stability could reduce risky and destructive behaviors and lead to a sustainable healthy environment.
The researchers measured whether youths felt safe in their neighborhood, whether they saw the people in their neighborhood being helpful with each other or fighting with each other, whether they had been threatened or harassed, or had been the victim of a theft. The youths also reported whether they had been involved in fights or carried a weapon, and whether they had perpetrated a theft, trespassing, arson, or purposeful damage of school property.
Kids who delayed gratification were 40 percent less likely to be in a fight. Those who were focused more on short term rewards were three times as likely to carry a weapon and six times as likely to commit arson and intentionally damage school property.
The study appears in the latest issue of the Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology. Co-authors are Thomas Reischl and Marc A. Zimmerman, both of the U-M School of Public Health.
is a writer with the University of Michigan News Service