Neighborhood Conditions and Child Behavioral Adjustment in Latino Families

• In Event: 2-006 - Exploring Neighborhood and Community Effects via Secondary Data

Abstract

Based on Jencks and Mayer’s (1990) theoretical frameworks, variability in family interactions may be due to neighborhood conditions such as neighborhood cohesion and neighborhood disorder. Put differently, the neighborhood climate may infiltrate the family climate through social learning processes. Within a family systems framework, these effects on family dynamics may be considered “spill-over effects” in which positive or negative affect from one member or dyad in the family may transfer over to others in the family. Although some studies have paved the way for studying spill-over effects of neighborhood conditions on parenting, little work has linked these effects to young children’s outcomes.

Applying this neighborhood- and family-level research to Latino families with young children may provide further insight into these complex processes. Notably, a familistic orientation towards day-to-day routines and modes of interaction is central to family life among Latinos.
The goals of this study are to answer the following:

1) Are neighborhood conditions (neighborhood disorder; neighborhood cohesion) among Latino families associated with child behavioral adjustment (prosocial behavior; behavior problems)?
2) Do family beliefs (familism values) and relationship quality (interparental relationship quality; interparental violence) moderate the association between neighborhood conditions and behavioral adjustment?
The study uses a subsample of Latino mothers with five-year-old children (N = 689) drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal study of over 5,000 families from large U.S. cities followed from birth (see Reichman et al., 2001). Only families where both parents of the focal child were in a romantic relationship and co-residing were included (see Table 1).

Two separate hierarchical multiple regression models were computed to predict children’s behavior problems and prosocial behaviors. One hierarchical model is presented in Table 2. Key findings show:

• Children living in disorderly neighborhoods were reported to exhibit disproportionately high behavior problems, particularly in cases where inteparental relationship quality is not modeled.
• Mothers’ perceptions of risky behavior in the neighborhood can translate to maladaptive internal workings of the family system whereby young Latino children also lack exposure to positive quality interactions and modes of behavior.
• Children who were exposed to a disorderly neighborhood were more likely to engage in prosocial behavior if their mothers endorsed familistic values.
• This may mean that family beliefs and values can play an important role in promoting a positive family climate that may help model adaptive behavior for young children even when maladaptive (disorderly) behavior is being modeled outside the doorstep.

Authors

• Henry Gonzalez, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Jose Rodas, University of Arizona