ESA Library
May 28 -30, 2008. San Francisco, CA. Society For Prevention Research (www.preventionresearch.org) - ESA and colleagues from WSU and University of Oregon will present on psychosocial analysis and GIS at the 16th Annual SPR Conference - at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero Center in downtown San Francisco, CA - on Wednesday, May 28th, 1015AM - 1145AM - Session (2-011). Presentation pdf
Sunday, August 19th, 2pm-250pm, Moscone Center, Exhibit Level-South Building, San Francisco, CA. American Psychological Assocation’s Annual Conference. “Explaining 
Neighborhood Correlates of Adolescent Conduct Problems: The Geo-Spatial Perspective.” Maria Gartstein, Ph.D., Washington State University, Thomas J. Dishion, Ph.D., University of Oregon, and Erich Seamon, M.S., ESA LLC.
APA Abstract - poster (pdf 3.2mb)
ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been an increased interest in understanding the antecedents and correlates of adolescent behavior problems and delinquency, primarily because of the significant cost to society associated with these difficulties. A number of child and family factors such as difficult child temperament and parental monitoring, have been causally linked with externalizing problems and delinquency, (Lytton, 1995). Neighborhood risk factors have also become central in explaining adolescent behavior problems. For example, the ecological perspective on conduct difficulties and delinquency outlines the importance of community context in shaping the developmental trajectories of these problematic behaviors (Dishion, French, & Patterson, 1995; Patterson, et al., 1992). Presence/frequency of crime indicators and physical safety have additionally been linked with more significant externalizing problems (Bush & Lengua, 2005). More recent work in this area has focused on understanding the interaction between child, family, and neighborhood risk factors. Kupersmidt, Griesler, De Rosier, Patterson, and Davis (1995), for instance, reported that African American children from low SES single parenthouseholds exhibited the highest levels of aggression in low income neighborhoods, however, in middle SES neighborhoods they were comparable in their levels of aggression to the other groups of children in the study. The interactions between child, family, and neighborhood factors will be explored in the context of the proposed research, utilizing a geo-spatial analytic framework. Specifically, it is expected that parental monitoring will emerge as an especially important protective factor for youth residing in areas associated with a more extensive array of risk factors.
Data from an ongoing project addressing the efficacy of the Adolescent Transition Program, a school-based interventions for behavior problems and substance use, collected in a diverse metropolitan community in the Northwest of the United States, will be utilized for the purposes of this research (N=714). Children and families participating in this research first became involved in the 6th grade, and were assessed multiple times, most recently in the 9th grade. Data from this last phase of assessment will be utilized in this study, representing 85% of the first cohort and 86% of the second cohort initially involved in this research. Adolescents’ self-report will be utilized in assessing delinquency, association with deviant peers, substance use, and parental monitoring. Parent-report of child behavior problems and demographic characteristics will also be included in the proposed investigation. First, reliable (e.g., internally consistent) constructs for the conduct problem domains addressed in this study will be developed on the bases of child and parent report, with multiple sources (i.e., reports provided by parents and children) utilized when feasible, that is, when sufficient convergence is established through factor analytic techniques, etc. Second, the geo-spatial analytic framework, developed for the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, will be applied to these variables for detailed analyses. In particular, collected psychosocial data will be geo-spatially analyzed and integrated with a variety of geo-coded (i.e., connected with a specific location) variables, such as crime incidents (burglary, theft, assault), census demographics (race, population density), as well as socio-economic status. Geographic indices, that is, neighborhood-level constructs reflecting crime and demographic variables (e.g., crime, SES), will be developed and used to explore relationships with conduct difficulties addressed in this study. Results of these analyses will provide geographically linked patterns of community risk factors that can subsequently targeted for intervention efforts.
Preliminary work suggests potential relationships between adolescent conduct problems and geographic indices, with higher antisocial activities and deviant peer involvement observed for adolescents residing in greater proximity to areas that are associated with higher crime densities.
References
Bush, N., & Lengua, L. (April, 2005). Maternal and Adolescent Reports of Neighborhood Cohesion: Predicting Children’s Adjustment. Presentation at the biannual convention of the Society for Research in Child Development, Atlanta, GA. Dishion, T.J., French, D.C., & Patterson, G.R. (1995). The development and ecology of antisocial behavior. In D. Cicchetti & D.J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental Psychopathology: Vol. 2. Risk, Disorder, and Adaptation (pp. 421-471). New York: Wiley. Kupersmidt, J.B., Griesler, P.C., De Rosier, M.E., Patterson, C.J., & Davis, P.W. (1995). Childhood Aggression and Peer Relations in the Context of Family and Neighborhood Factors. Child Development, 66, 360-375. Lytton, H. (1995, March). Child and family factors as predictors of conduct disorder and criminality. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis, IN. Patterson, G.R., Reid, J.B., Dishion, T.J. (1992). A Social Learning Approach: IV. Antisocial Boys. Eugene, OR: Castalia.
August 9, 2006. San Diego, CA. ESRI users conference 2006. “Understanding Adolescent Behavior with GIS – Case Study: Portland, Oregon”
ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been an increased interest in understanding the antecedents and correlates of adolescent behavior problems and delinquency with geography and the use of GIS becoming extremely useful in understanding these diffuse relationships. This presentation will review efforts to geospatially analyze a variety of geographic datasets (crime, census demographics, socioeconomic status) with the aforementioned psychosocial variables, longitudinally collected over the last five (5) years for the Portland, Oregon, area. The authors will also present efforts to develop neighborhood-level indices that show correlations between conduct difficulties and the aforementioned geographic datasets as well as discuss attempts to estimate reliability/validity for the obtained relationships between the psychosocial and geospatial metrics. Results of these analyses will show geographically linked patterns of community risk factors that can be subsequently used for targeted intervention efforts as well as a geospatial methodology that can be extended to other geographic areas.
April 9-12, 2006 - Santa Fe, NM “Explaining neighborhood correlates of adolescent conduct problems in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area: the geo-spatial perspective” Presentation (pdf)
The Analytic Institute of Journalism’s Ver 1.0 Conference - A workshop on public database verification for journalists and social scientists.
Authors: Erich Seamon, Maria Gartstein and Thomas J. Dishion
ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been an increased interest in understanding the antecedents and correlates of adolescent behavior problems and delinquency, primarily because of the significant cost to society associated with these difficulties. First, reliable constructs for the conduct problem domains addressed in this study will be developed on the bases of child and parent report, with multiple sources. Second, the geo-spatial analytic framework, developed for the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, will be applied to these variables for detailed analysis. Finally, the veracity of the results provided through the geo-spatial framework will be examined in an attempt to ascertain estimates of reliability/validity for the obtained relationships between the psychosocial and geospatial metrics.
“Security, Privacy, and GIS: Changing Perspectives in a Changing World” (pdf) ESRI Users Conference 10am - Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - San Diego Convention Center Room 30-A
ABSTRACT
The changing perspectives of geospatial technology are dramatic in the world around us - how we communicate, travel, interact, and govern all are using geography and GIS in a more prominent fashion. In particular, issues around homeland security and terrorism have been thrust up against concerns of privacy and freedom of information–with GIS playing a prominent technological role. This presentation will review the broader context of geospatial information and the security vs. privacy issue including review of key court cases and research that support differing perspectives (i.e., Greenwich CT v. FOI Commission 2004, RAND report on geospatial usage) as well as zero in on tangible approaches that local government technologists can use to guide their counsels and politicians. Topics of discussion will include understanding your political environment with regards to public data access, as well as educating your attorney on how geospatial information and your jurisdiction’s public records laws interact.
“Implementing Enterprise GIS in San Francisco” 2005 American Planning Association National Conference, March 21-25, San Francisco, CA presentation pdf
“Managing geographic information nationally: strategies for GIS governance” California GIS conference, Bakersfield, CA March 16-18th, 2005 presentation pdf
ABSTRACT
Considerable efforts have been underway for the past year to develop alternative governance options for managing geospatial information nationally – with leaders from around the country working on a FGDC ‘Future Directions’ committee to that effect. While the current geographic information governance model focuses on the FGDC as an inter-agency body, with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Interior (DOI) as key players – this approach has not proffered a clear vision of geographic information sharing in a vertical government environment (local/state/regional/federal). As such, the goals of this committee have been to review existing approaches to how the federal government acquires and manages geospatial information, to assess the value of existing programs (including the USGS’s National Map, NSDI, the newly formed National Geospatial Program Office (NGPO), state and regional collaboratives), and to then make recommendations on governance restructuring that are effective, inclusive, and can be acted upon. Preliminary results have focused around three hybridized governance options that would alleviate problems that have hindered better national integration, including lack of authority, local agency involvement, as well as fragmented roles and responsibilities. This presentation will review the committee’s initial findings, discuss the pro’s and con’s of the three governance options, as well as discuss challenges that all governmental agencies face to work within the current as well as proposed geospatial governance structure(s). The presenter’s intention is to communicate these efforts and to garner feedback that can be integrated into final recommendations to the FGDC and the OMB.
“SF Enterprise GIS: interactions and uses of geospatial databases” Northern California URISA presentation - February 9th, 2005 - Sacramento, CA 5mb pdf
“Building a Successful Enterprise GIS in San Francisco, CA” ESRI Users’s Conference 2004 - San Diego, CA 7mb pdf
“Fighting Crime in the 21st Century: Developing CrimeMAPS, SF’s first dynamic crime analysis system” National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Seventh Annual Crime Mapping Conference, Boston, MA 2004 9mb pdf
GIS Strategies for the City and County of San Francisco, 2001” By Erich Seamon, 08.2001
“Water Management in Marin County, California: Development and Implementation of a Complex Water Utility GIS to Manage Both Infrastructure and Natural Resources.” by Erich Seamon
ABSTRACT
The Marin Municipal Water District, since its’ inception as the oldest water utility in California (1912), has had a unique challenge of building and maintaining an extremely complex infrastructure, as well as managing the natural resources of some of the most biologically and ecologically diverse areas in North America. This paper will specifically address the technical issues involved to implement and maintain a multi-tier water utility GIS (billing, work order, SCADA, natural resources), as well as outline the pitfalls in data management, moving to a production environment, and secondary application development.
“Hydrological Modeling and the use of GIS as a predictive tool in environmental management” by Erich Seamon - Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission, KY. 1999