Exposure to Community Violence and Parenting Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis

• In Event: - Adversity in Context: Associations Between Family and Neighborhood Disadvantage, Parenting, and Child Outcomes

Abstract

Community violence is a pervasive problem that poses significant risks to a child’s development (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Greater exposure to community violence is linked to reduced physiological functioning (e.g., Heissel et al., 2018), greater mental illness (e.g., Fowler et al., 2009), and other long-term adverse outcomes (e.g., Lynch, 2003). Although much has been learned about the association between community violence and children’s well-being, it is critical to identify mechanisms by which community violence affects child development. Such mechanistic evidence could identify targets for intervention. Parenting behavior is one possible mechanism by which community violence may influence child development. Growing evidence suggests that the neighborhood environment influences how parents behave towards and interact with their children (Cuellar et al., 2015). However, to our knowledge, no meta-analysis has synthesized these associations.

The present meta-analyses sought to address this gap in the literature by assessing the magnitude of the association between community violence and parenting behaviors (i.e., positive parenting, harsh/neglectful parenting, parent-child relationship quality, and parents’ control of children’s behaviors) and examine potential moderators of this association. Eligibility criteria included papers that: (1) measured community violence exposure before or at the time of parenting, (2) assessed parenting, and (3) were available in English. There were 338 dependent effect sizes across parenting constructs: positive (k = 103; 70 studies); harsh/neglectful (k = 95; 64 studies), relationship quality (k = 64; 40 studies), and behavior control (k = 76; 51 studies), from 159 manuscripts representing 147 distinct studies. Random effects analyses were performed in R (Version 4.0.3) using the “metafor” package.

Results of the three-level meta-analyses found significant, but small, overall associations between greater exposure to community violence and lower levels of positive parenting (r = -0.058, CI95% = -0.085, -0.031), greater harsh/neglectful parenting (r = 0.140, CI 95% = 0.109, 0.172), poorer parent-child relationship quality (r = -0.103, CI95% = -0.144, -0.062), and lower levels of behavior control (r = -0.047, CI95% = -0.089, -0.005). There were several significant moderators. The association between exposure to community violence and harsh/neglectful parenting was higher for studies using child report for assessing community violence and harsh/neglectful parenting behaviors than for studies using parent report. Additionally, the positive association between exposure to community violence and harsh/neglectful parenting increased as children became older and as the percentage of female children increased. Finally, when there was a greater percentage of children of color in the sample, the negative association between exposure to community violence and parents’ behavior control was attenuated.

The meta-analysis adds to evidence demonstrating the unique associations between exposure to community violence and various forms of parenting behaviors. Such ecological findings reduce the onus of responsibility and blame often placed on parents and highlight the influence of context on parenting. The results emphasize the need for multisystemic interventions at the individual level (i.e., to build children’s resilience), family level (i.e., to support positive caregiving), school level (to foster violence awareness), and the broader community level (i.e., to curtail growing incidences of crime).

Authors

• Daneele Thorpe, Stony Brook University
  Presenting Author

• Rebecca Mirhashem, Stony Brook University

• Jill Smokoski, Stony Brook Unviersity

• Tori Pena

• Kristin L Bernard, Stony Brook University