cjrc-sponsored research

  • Project:
  • Neighborhood or Nurture: The Effects of Neighborhood Characteristics and Parenting on Problem Behaviors in Early Childhood

  • Investigator:
  • Heather Washington (Sociology)

  • Abstract:
  • Research on child wellbeing has tended to focus on neighborhood contexts and parenting behaviors alone. I consider the simultaneous and interactive effects of neighborhood characteristics and parenting on problem behaviors in early childhood. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, I examine, specifically, whether parenting behaviors, such as parental engagement buffer the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on children’s externalized problem behaviors such as aggression, disobedience, fighting at home or at school, destruction, and use of obscene language. Neighborhood measures include racial/ethnic composition, socioeconomic disadvantage, crime rates, and collective efficacy. I apply hierarchical linear models to determine how neighborhood characteristics affect parenting behaviors and how such behaviors in turn affect problem behaviors in early childhood. Implications for research on the residential context of problem behaviors and the role of parenting in buffering disadvantaged residential contexts are discussed.