The Effects of Neighborhood Factors, Maternal Depression & Parental Emotional Support on Social Behavioral Outcomes of Children Involved in Child Welfare System

OVERVIEW:

Children from low-income families often live in economically disadvantaged and unsafe neighborhoods with high rates of crime and a lack of resources that are essential for their development. Evidence confirms that children in poor neighborhoods show a wide range of negative outcomes such as poor school readiness before school entry, low academic achievement and higher school drop out rates. Moreover, living in disadvantaged neighborhoods has a negative influence on children’s families, particularly on the mental health of mothers, which ultimately leads to negative parental styles and practices. In turn, strict and harsh parenting has been reported to hinder children’s behavioral health, resulting in increased rates of internalized and externalized behavioral issues. This study used longitudinal data to examine the effects of perceived neighborhood danger, maternal mental health and parental practices on the social-behavioral outcomes of young children involved in the US child welfare system.

METHODS

The current study utilized nationally representative data from the National Survey of Child Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW II). The sample (N=629) was limited to children ages 1.5 to 5 years old living with biological or adoptive mothers at the time of data collection. The structural equation method (SEM) was used to examine direct and indirect relationships between perceived neighborhood quality and social-behavioral outcomes of young children involved in the child welfare system. The mediating role of maternal mental health, parental practices and parental responsiveness over two waves of data collection were also tested.

RESULTS

Every 5th mother (20%) at baseline reported symptoms that met the main criteria for depression, which is significantly higher than the recent percentage of depressed women in the general population (10.4 %). Mothers’ perceived neighborhood characteristics were significantly associated with maternal depression (b= 0.04, p< 0.05). In turn, maternal depression was directly related to the usage of harsher discipline (b=0.19, p< 0.01), which in turn was significantly related to children’s social behavioral outcomes (b= -0. 882, p< 0.05). Unexpectedly, no significant relationship was found between maternal depression and parental emotional support (b=0.05, p > 0.05), although decreased parental emotional support was negatively related to children’s social behavioral health (b= -0.43, p < 0.001).

IMPLICATIONS

Safeguarding the well-being of children involved in the CWS is one of the three primary goals of the child welfare system along with permanency and safety. Thus, it is important that the social-behavioral outcomes of child welfare involved children are assessed and addressed timely, in order to significantly reduce the potential long-lasting effects of negative family and neighborhood level factors.