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Panel information
Panel 9. Family Context & Processes

Abstract

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Although young children’s developmental outcomes are heavily influenced by parents and home life, the broader neighborhood context in which they are raised impacts their access to socioeconomic resources needed for healthy growth and development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998; Curley, 2010). Neighborhood disadvantage disproportionately impacts families of color due, in part, to systemic discriminatory practices such as “redlining” and subprime lending (Faber, 2013; McArdle et al., 2023). Children living in neighborhoods that have higher levels of physical and social disorder have worse developmental outcomes, including behavioral problems (Caughy et al., 2008; Jones, 2024). However, positive parenting has been shown to be a protective factor against the deleterious impact contextual risk factors can have on behavior problems in early childhood (Dishion et al., 2008; Goodlett et al., 2017). Therefore, the present study examined whether positive parenting moderated the relationship between perceptions of neighborhood problems and young children’s behavior problems in an on-going study of families who were recruited from an area that has been heavily impacted by systemic discriminatory practices.

This analysis included 126 mother-child dyads. 92.8% identified as a person of color, and 65.8% of mothers reported an annual family income under $20,000 before tax deductions. When children were 3 years old, mothers completed the Neighborhood Matters (NM; Henry et al., 2014) questionnaire by rating the extent of perceived neighborhood physical and social problems. The mother-child dyads were also video-recorded during a cooperative challenge task in which the parent supported the child in sorting blocks by color and shape under a time constraint. The recordings were coded for maternal supportive parenting (MSP), which includes both emotional and cognitive support. Mothers rated their children on internalizing and externalizing behaviors using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000).

Our results showed that neighborhood problems and MSP were, respectively, positively and negatively associated with externalizing (r = .271, p = .001; r = -.244, p = .002) and internalizing behaviors (r = .268, p =.001; r = -.269, p =.001). There was also a significant negative association between MSP and neighborhood problems (r = -.246, p = .003). We ran two separate hierarchical multiple regressions predicting internalizing and externalizing behaviors, respectively, with child sex and household chaos included as covariates. MSP moderated the relationship between neighborhood problems and internalizing behaviors (β = -.221, p = .008), but not externalizing behaviors (β = -.012, p > .05). When neighborhood problems were rated high and MSP was low, internalizing behaviors were relatively high. When neighborhood problems were high and MSP was high, internalizing problems were relatively low (see Figure 1). Thus, positive parenting appeared to buffer the relationship between neighborhood problems and internalizing issues. Future research should investigate parental or home environment qualities that may attenuate the link between neighborhood problems and externalizing behaviors. Applied research should examine early preventive intervention programs targeting positive parenting among families living in under-resourced communities and whether such programs also reduce risk for early internalizing problems.

Author information

Author	Role
Alexis Taylor, Wayne State University	Presenting author
Marjorie Beeghly, Wayne State University, Department of Psychology	Non-presenting author
Chris Trentacosta, Wayne State University, Department of Psychology	Non-presenting author
Moriah Thomason, New York University Langone Health	Non-presenting author

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