Early Childhood Development: The Role of Neighborhoods

• In Event: 1-010 - Neighborhood Geocoding

Abstract

Most studies about early childhood development have focused on the role of caregivers, with less attention given to the role of the larger ecology of neighborhood influences. However, empirical evidence demonstrates that neighborhoods matter. Young children who live in resource-rich neighborhoods display short-term benefits, such as prosocial behaviors, healthy cognitive development, and good physical health when compared with children who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods. In addition to benefiting from short-term gains, longitudinal studies demonstrate that positive neighborhood environments in the early years promote healthy trajectories for young children well into their adolescence and adulthood. Examples of long-term benefits include reducing aggressive temperamental tendencies, inhibiting sexually risky behaviors, encouraging higher rates of employment, and reducing criminal activity.

This session will highlight a research collaboration established between three universities and a local community partner. The collaboration had a collective goal to examine the association between aspects of neighborhood contexts and early childhood development among five-year-olds. Several contextual predictors identified as important in previous studies were examined, including rates of abuse and neglect referrals. In fact, a primary focus of this research study was to examine whether census tract levels of abuse and neglect referrals predicted early child developmental outcomes, above and beyond other demographic characteristics of neighborhood populations. We focused on abuse and neglect referrals due to the constellation of social problems found to be correlated with such reports.

Data were drawn from the Early Development Index (EDI), which was implemented universally in public schools in a relatively large county with a population of approximately 3 million residents. The EDI assesses the domains of physical health and well-being, emotional maturity, communication skills and general knowledge, social competence, and language and cognitive skills. EDI assessments were completed close to the time of kindergarten entry, before the K-12 educational system likely has had extensive influence on young children's development. More than 34,000 kindergarteners in 583 census tracts were included in the analysis. Study findings and population-level prevention strategies known to be associated with both child maltreatment and early childhood development will be discussed.

Author

• Judith Perrigo, USC
  Presenting Author