Good families improve neighborhoods by expanding the pool of well-behaved peers

Evidence

In Northern California scholars have found that the presence of lots of stable families in a neighborhood is associated with lower levels of youthful lawbreaking, not because the adults serve as role models or supervisors, but because the adults rear well-adjusted and well-behaved kids. Thus “good families” have a ripple effect by increasing the pool of “good peers” that other families’ kids can befriend. If we think of youthful troublemaking as a communicable disease—a sort of behavioral chicken pox that spreads through high schools and friendship groups—then stable families provide the vaccines that reduce the number of contagious kids capable of infecting others. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1093

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Choosing better friends can lead to personal improvement. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 321

Broader Connections

• Choosing better friends can lead to personal improvement. #expands (0.75) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 321