Adolescence is a time when there is an increase in the vulnerability and risk for deviance, especially for adolescents who are living in high poverty/crime areas. This study focused on the meso-system (the term meso-system is introduced in Bronfenbrenner’s work (1986)), which examines how the home context and neighborhood context conjointly influence adolescent development. Using the data from The FAN-C (Understanding Family, Adolescent, and Neighborhood in Context) study (Parents, n = 158; Adolescents n = 206), this study specifically examined (1) how neighborhood characteristics (e.g. neighborhood collective efficacy and neighborhood poverty) were related to adolescent deviant behavior, and (2) how parental monitoring might moderate this relation. By using hierarchical linear regression, the results showed that contrary to the original hypothesis; parental monitoring exacerbated the positive relation between neighborhood collective efficacy (informal social control, β= .25, p < 0.05) and deviant behavior. Furthermore, this study showed that for lower-income African American and Latino youth living in distressed, high violence and crime neighborhoods, youths and their parents reported low levels of deviant behavior. This may suggest and provide an alternative narrative of urban, ethnically diverse youth.
