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Does Race/Ethnicity Moderate the Associations between Neighborhood and Parenting Processes on Early Behavior Problems?

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Abstract

Research suggests that corporal punishment and growing up in socially disorganized neighborhoods may have differential effects on children of color compared to White children. We test this idea by employing multilevel models with interaction terms to examine whether the associations of perceived neighborhood collective efficacy and maternal corporal punishment with behavior problems at age 5 differed by race/ethnicity. The analytic sample consisted of 2388 White, Black, or Hispanic families in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Covariates at the individual child, parent, and neighborhood levels were included to account for the racial/ethnic differences in structural and socioeconomic factors. Results demonstrate that race/ethnicity does not moderate the associations of maternal corporal punishment with internalizing or externalizing behavior problems in early childhood, nor does race/ethnicity moderate the association between neighborhood collective efficacy and externalizing behavior. However, the significant interaction between neighborhood collective efficacy and Hispanic ethnicity suggests that the protective role of collective efficacy on internalizing behavior is more pronounced in Hispanic children than White children. Overall, these findings underline the importance of multilevel interventions that strengthen neighborhood collective efficacy, particularly for Hispanic children, and of interventions that discourage physical discipline practices for young children.

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Author Contributions

J.M. designed the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. S.K. collaborated with the design and with the writing and editing of the final manuscript.

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  1. Department of Social Work, School of Education and Human Services, University of Michigan – Flint, 303 East Kearsley Street, 454 David M. French Hall, Flint, Michigan, 48502, USA

    Julie Ma

  2. School of Social Work, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    Sacha Klein

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Correspondence to Julie Ma.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of Michigan State University (MSU), which provided the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for the study. The Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton University reviewed MSU’s IRB approval, an associated data protection plan, and copies of the Protecting Human Research Participants web-based training completion certificate from NIH or proof of equivalent training for all research staff before allowing the research team's access to the data.

Informed Consent

In this study, we used secondary data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being study; therefore, there was no direct contact with human participants. Informed consent was obtained from all of the caregivers included in the study.

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Ma, J., Klein, S. Does Race/Ethnicity Moderate the Associations between Neighborhood and Parenting Processes on Early Behavior Problems?. J Child Fam Stud 27, 3717–3729 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1200-7

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