Wruck, Peter Jordan2014-03-072014-03-072014-01https://hdl.handle.net/11299/162736University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. January 2014. Major: Sociology. Advisor: John R. Gerteis. 1 computer file (PDF); vii, 147 pages.From classical theorists like Durkheim, to the Chicago School's Park and Burgess (1916) and Shaw and McKay (1942), to today's work in criminology, sociologists have demonstrated clear relationships between residential context and a variety of outcomes. We also know that children vary in their school readiness. A variety of social forces push and pull on preschool age children and impact their overall school readiness, including family, health, institutions, and neighborhood. This research bridges the neighborhood and early education research literatures to answer three questions: first, is there an association between neighborhoods and school readiness in the United States? Second, which social disorganization-theory informed neighborhood characteristics are most salient in describing this observed association? Finally, do families act as a mediator of this relationship? Given the literature and theory, I hypothesized that these relationships would be substantial and endure across a variety of definitions of neighborhood and school readiness. My results, however, paint a different picture: while neighborhoods appear to be associated with school readiness, the importance of this association is perhaps best described as mild. This has important implications for neighborhood and social capital theories, as well as future research into neighborhood effects on individuals and families.en-USChild DevelopmentEducationNeighborhoodsResidential ContextSchool ReadinessSociologyThesis or Dissertation