Review Article: The significance of neighbourhood context to child and adolescent health and well-being: A systematic review of multilevel studies

Abstract

Growing up in a poor neighbourhood has negative effects on children and adolescents. In the literature it has been concluded that the risk of low birth weight, childhood injury and abuse, and teenage pregnancy or criminality double in poor areas. However, the validity of such studies has been questioned, as they have been associated with ecological or individualistic fallacies. Studies using multilevel technique might thus contribute important knowledge in this field. The present review clarifies the importance of neighbourhood contextual factors in child and adolescent health outcomes, through considering only studies using multilevel technique. Keyword searching of the Medline, ERIC, PsycInfo, Sociological Abstracts, and Social Citation Index databases was performed. Original studies using multilevel technique to examine the effect of neighbourhood characteristics on child and adolescent health outcomes, and focusing on populations in high-income countries were included. Neighbourhood socioeconomic status and social climate were shown to have small to moderate effects on child health outcomes, i.e. birth weight, injuries, behavioural problems, and child maltreatment. On average, 10% of variation in health outcomes was explained by neighbourhood determinants, after controlling for important individual and family variables. This review demonstrates that interventions in underprivileged neighbourhoods can reduce health risks to children, especially in families that lack resources. An analysis of methodological fallacies indicates that observed effects and effect sizes can be underestimated, and that interventions may well have greater impact than this review was able to establish.

Community Adversity and Children’s Mental Health: Moderating Effects of Caregiver Service Utilization and Race on Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

“…As alluded to above, dangerous neighborhoods do not provide the recovery and support that comes with enabling communities (McMurray 2011;Hall et al 2012;Poortinga 2012). They comprise a social reality that is accompanied by a lack of social capital that leads to sustaining access to the social determinants of health (Sellstrom and Bremberg 2006). Dangerous neighborhoods comprise a myriad of threats to childhood well-being given the frequent experience of high crime, murder, drug sell and distribution, and the chronic incarceration of its residents.…”

“…Unequivocably, neighborhoods have an appreciable and memorializing influence on the mental and primary health of all of its inhabitants which also include its younger residents (Garner et al 2012;Hilmers et al 2012;Kessler et al 2014;Sellstrom and Bremberg 2006). The iatrogenic and health promotion effects and other contributions of the community are a fundamental tenet of the ecobiodevelopmental perspective in pediatric medicine and are also an essential aspect of Bronfenbrenner's theory of human behavior in the social environment, both, inextricably links health outcomes to place and family determinants and their complex interactions, interlocking and multifaceted associations (Garner et al 2012;McMurray 2011, Poortinga 2012.…”

Community factors influencing child and adolescent depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…In addition, current meta-analyses and reviews in the areas of child and adolescent depression, health promotion and community interventions were located and reference lists reviewed (e.g. Barrera et al, 2007;Cuijpers et al, 2006;Horowitz and Garber, 2006;Keleher and Armstrong, 2005;Perry et al, 2010;Sellström and Bremberg, 2006;Stice et al, 2009;Suter and Bruns, 2009;Thomson et al, 2006;Twenge and Nolen-Hoeksema, 2002). Furthermore, the reference lists of included studies were reviewed to identify potential studies.…”

Neighbourhood deprivation and outlet density for tobacco, alcohol and fast food: first hints of obesogenic and addictive environments in Germany

“…play grounds and sports fields) -is an example of a factor which has an indirect effect on the behaviour and health of inhabitants (2) . A central finding of the research is also that the neighbourhood context accounts for about 10 % of the variation in health outcomes and contributes to the emergence and stabilization of health inequalities (10) .…”