Longitudinal associations of neighborhood collective efficacy and maternal corporal punishment with behavior problems in early childhood.

Abstract

Neighborhood and parenting influences on early behavioral outcomes are strongly dependent upon a child's stage of development. However, little research has jointly considered the longitudinal associations of neighborhood and parenting processes with behavior problems in early childhood. To address this limitation, this study explores the associations of neighborhood collective efficacy and maternal corporal punishment with the longitudinal patterns of early externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. The study sample consisted of 3,705 families from a nationally representative cohort study of urban families. Longitudinal multilevel models examined the associations of collective efficacy and corporal punishment with behavior problems at age 3, as well as with patterns of behavior problems between the ages 3 to 5. Interactions between the main predictors and child age tested whether neighborhood and parent relationships with child behavior varied over time. Mediation analysis examined whether neighborhood influences on child behavior were mediated by parenting. The models controlled for a comprehensive set of possible confounders at the child, parent, and neighborhood levels. Results indicate that both maternal corporal punishment and low neighborhood collective efficacy were significantly associated with increased behavior problems. The significant interaction between collective efficacy and child age with internalizing problems suggests that neighborhood influences on internalizing behavior were stronger for younger children. The indirect effect of low collective efficacy on behavior problems through corporal punishment was not significant. These findings highlight the importance of multilevel interventions that promote both neighborhood collective efficacy and non-physical discipline in early childhood.

Does community violence exposure moderate the associations between maternal spanking and early child behavior problems?

“…Our findings were consistent with numerous prior studies of the FFCWS, in that we found the associations of maternal spanking with elevated levels of both externalizing and internalizing child behavior problems (Ma & Grogan‐Kaylor, 2017; Maguire‐Jack et al, 2012; Taylor, Manganello, Lee, & Rice, 2010). Also consistent with a prior FFCWS study that used fixed effects analysis, we found that community violence predicted higher levels of child aggression (Ma et al, 2018).…”

Collective efficacy and natural hazards: differing roles of social cohesion and task-specific efficacy in shaping risk and coping beliefs

“…The education literature has also devoted considerable attention to collective efficacy and found a close link between the belief of teachers in the collective efficacy of their school and student achievement (Goddard 2002(Goddard , 2001Goddard, Hoy, and Hoy 2000;Bandura 1993). Collective efficacy is relevant in a wide range of contexts, including pro-environmental behaviour (Chen 2015), group problem solving (Kline and MacLeod 1997), substance abuse (Fagan, Wright, and Pinchevsky 2014), athletics (Greenlees, Graydon, and Maynard 1999), child development (Smith et al 2013), parenting (Ma and Grogan-Kaylor 2017), political attitude and participation (Lee 2006) and community gardening (Teig et al 2009).…”

Neighborhood collective efficacy and collective action: The role of civic engagement

“…Collective efficacy is defined as the connections and social relationships among community members combined with the willingness to utilize these relationships to facilitate community change (Odgers et al., ). Recent research focuses on the relationships between collective efficacy at the neighborhood level (i.e., neighborhood collective efficacy) and a wide range of topics including intimate partner violence (Jackson, ), fear of crime among public housing residents (Kilewer, ), neighborhood crime and violence (Browning, Feinberg, & Dietz, ; Higgins & Hunt, ; Hipp, ; Pegram, Brunson, & Braga, ), adolescent substance abuse (Fagan, Wright, & Pinchevsky, ; Jackson, Denny, Sheridan, Zhao, & Ameratunga, ), child development (Smith, Osgood, Caldwell, Hynes, & Perkins, ), parenting (Ma, ; Ma & Grogan‐Kaylor, ; Zuberi, ), and community gardening (Teig et al. ().…”

“…, child development (Smith, Osgood, Caldwell, Hynes, & Perkins, 2013), parenting (Ma, 2016;Ma & Grogan-Kaylor, 2017;Zuberi, 2016), and community gardening (Teig et al (2009).…”