A Scoping Review of Neighborhood Effects and Health Among Children and Adolescents: Measurement and Design Characteristics

Abstract

Decades of research have explored how neighborhood conditions relate to child and adolescent health, spawning numerous reviews focused on specific predictors, outcomes, or populations. Less is known about the design and characteristics underpinning this work. We conducted a scoping review of 754 studies examining neighborhood conditions and health-related factors among children and adolescents (aged 0–18) published between 2015 and 2024. This growing area of literature is largely based on observational, cross-sectional evidence of associations between objective socioeconomic status (SES) conditions and health, with over 100 studies focusing on associations between neighborhood SES and physical health, specifically. The findings of this review suggest that the current “state of the science” on neighborhoods and health among children and adolescents often does not lend itself to strong developmental conclusions, due to a reliance on observational, cross-sectional designs. Moreover, extant literature provides limited insight into whether neighborhood conditions beyond SES are associated with health. Longitudinal studies of multidomain neighborhood conditions and health represent important directions for future research.