Accelerating place-based scholarship: using geocoded indices to capture neighborhood effects

The social, economic, and environmental features of neighborhoods can have broad effects on children's development, yet these contexts are often characterized using single dimensions, such as socioeconomic status. In this article, building on research highlighting the heterogeneity of youth's exposure to and experience in neighborhoods in the United States, we review three of the most commonly used comprehensive geocoded indices (the social vulnerability index, the area deprivation index, and the child opportunity index), which are publicly available, to capture a variety of neighborhood assets and resources. We provide strategies and tools to guide developmental researchers in incorporating these indices into their work. By offering a framework for more comprehensive place-based research, we seek to stimulate more study of place-based effects to advance understanding of how neighborhood factors shape children's development and inform targeted interventions to reduce inequities.