Behaviour of parents and children in two contrasting urban neighbourhoods: an observational study

Abstract

Studies based on self-report questionnaires suggest that there are social gradients in parental investment within developed societies, with reduced investment occurring in families of lower socioeconomic position. However, these results have not been investigated by direct observation of behaviour in its natural setting. Here, I report the results of an observational study of behaviour of parents and children on the streets of two neighbourhoods of the same city, one affluent and one deprived. In the deprived neighbourhood relative to the affluent one, children were more likely to be on the streets in the evenings, were less likely to be accompanied by adults, infants were more likely to be crying, and babies were more likely to be in the care of children. Where mothers were present, though, they were less likely to be the sole adult with a brood. In particular, there was a greater prevalence of groups consisting of multiple females plus children. Although only two sites have been studied here, the method could be extended to other areas, and the initial results confirm that, under harsh environmental conditions, children receive less care by adults, alloparenting of infants by children becomes more important, and women mitigate the costs of caring for children by cooperating with other adults, particularly other women.

5. From cradle to grave

“…You will notice that the number of households is rather larger in Neighbourhood B. This is because in Neighbourhood B, half of households with children contain only a lone adult, whereas in Neighbourhood A, the great majority of households with children (88%) contain two adults (Nettle, 2011a). This is itself an interesting pattern to which we will return.…”

Peer Review #1 of "Disorder affects judgements about a neighbourhood: police presence does not (v0.1)"

“…The photographs used were of two neighbourhoods in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. These neighbourhoods have been PeerJ reviewing PDF | (v2013:12:1079:1:0:NEW 14 Jan 2014) extensively studied for comparing outcomes and behaviour in a socioeconomically deprived and an affluent neighbourhood (Nettle et al, 2011;Nettle, Coyne, & Colléony, 2012;Nettle, 2011Nettle, , 2012. The physical environments in these neighbourhoods, in terms of maintenance of public spaces, businesses and housing upkeep, are highly contrasting (see Figure 2).…”

Peer Review #1 of "Being there: a brief visit to a neighbourhood induces the social attitudes of that neighbourhood (v0.1)"

“…Our research was based in the two neighbourhoods, A and B, within the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northeast England, that have been described fully in previous papers (Nettle 2012;Nettle et al 2011). For this study, the boundaries of neighbourhood B were enlarged slightly compared to our previous work, due to a desire to avoid repeatedly sampling the same residents in surveys.…”

“…The setting for our study was two different neighbourhoods within the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. These neighbourhoods have been the focus of ongoing fieldwork for several years (Nettle 2012;Nettle et al 2011;Nettle et al 2012;Schroeder et al 2013). They are within a few kilometres of one another and are similar in many regards (size, population, population density, architectural layout, distance from city centre, approximate ethnic composition), but radically different in terms of socioeconomic fortunes.…”