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Rural neighborhoods and child aggression
Natasha K Bowen1, Christopher J Wretman
1School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3550, USA, nbowen@email.unc.edu.
American Journal of Community Psychology
|September 11, 2014
Summary
Rural neighborhoods influence aggressive behavior in pre-adolescents through direct contagion and indirect social control via parenting. This highlights neighborhood and family influences during this developmental stage.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Sociology
- Rural Studies
Background:
- Neighborhood factors significantly impact child development.
- Understanding rural community influences on pre-adolescent behavior is crucial.
- Negative teen behaviors in neighborhoods may pose risks to children's development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the direct and mediated effects of neighborhood risk factors on aggressive behavior in rural pre-adolescents.
- To examine contagion and social control hypotheses regarding neighborhood influences.
- To determine if the neighborhood acts as a microsystem or exosystem for rural children.
Main Methods:
- Structural equation modeling with latent variables was employed.
- Data were collected from 213 students in grades 3-5 in a low-income, rural community.
- Analyses accounted for student clustering and the ordinal nature of the data.
Main Results:
- Rural neighborhoods function as both microsystems and exosystems, affecting aggressive behavior.
- Direct contagion effects from negative teen behaviors and indirect social control effects via parenting were observed.
- Parenting practices and friends' negative behaviors also directly impacted aggression.
Conclusions:
- Pre-adolescence is a transitional period where neighborhood influences compete with caregiver influences.
- Findings suggest a dual role for rural neighborhoods in shaping child behavior.
- Results can inform targeted violence prevention strategies in rural settings.