Research: Don’t Forget Neighborhoods

A study in the current issue of Child Development investigates how neighborhood influences affect young children’s behavior and verbal abilities:

The present study used Canadian National Longitudinal data to examine a model of the mechanisms through which the effects of neighborhood socioeconomic conditions impact young children’s verbal and behavioral outcomes (N = 3,528; M age = 5.05 years, SD = 0.86). Integrating elements of social disorganization theory and family stress models, and results from structural equation models suggest that both neighborhood and family mechanisms played an important role in the transmission of neighborhood socioeconomic effects. Neighborhood disadvantage manifested its effect via lower neighborhood cohesion, which was associated with maternal depression and family dysfunction. These processes were, in turn, related to less consistent, less stimulating, and more punitive parenting behaviors, and ultimately, poorer child outcomes.

An important component of a PK-3 reform agenda is that parents, early childhood programs, and public elementary schools share responsibility–and accountability–for children’s outcomes and achievement at third grade. But this is a good reminder that neighborhoods–and the broader array of institutions they encompass–also bear responsibility for children’s outcomes, and can be important partners in supporting children’s early learning and development.