The Relationship between Residential Instability and Harsh Parenting Behavior: Mediating Role of Neighborhood Social Cohesion

Background and Purpose: The stability of housing provides individuals with a sense of safety that they are in control of the environment. Much of the existing research has focused on parents’ internal psychological states such as parenting stress, or depression as a mediator of the relationship. On the other hand, literature also reports that residential instability is associated with weakened social ties and support systems around them. Social support networks around families also impact parenting behavior due to different reasons. The current study aims to examine whether parent’s perception of neighbor cohesion is mediating the relationship between residential instability and harsh parenting behavior.

Methods: We used data from the FFCW (Future of Families and Children Wellbeing study). The FFCW data includes a sample of urban births between 1998 and 2001 in 20 cities, disproportionately sampled non-married parents. FFCW families were interviewed at the birth of the focal child and when the child reached ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15. The current study used the data when the child was 3, 5, and 9 years old. Those who did not participate in all waves were excluded from the analytic sample (n=221). Pair-wise deletion was used, leaving the final sample of 3,666.

The independent variable residential instability at wave 2 was an observed indicator that counted the following events: two or more moves, doubled-up, homelessness, or eviction. The dependent variable harsh parenting at wave 4 was a latent variable measured with two observed indicators: emotional and physical harsh parenting when the child was nine years old. This was measured with Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales (CTSPC) including behaviors such as spanking, slapping the child, or screaming. Finally, neighborhood cohesion was an observed indicator that summed five items (e.g. people in this neighborhood are willing to help). Structural Equation Modeling was conducted to determine the associations between the variables of interest as well as indirect effects through Mplus 8.8. The indirect effects were assessed using the bias-corrected bootstrapped standard errors.

Results: The structural model had a desirable model fit, (χ² (30) =1361.78, p < .001, CFI = .95, RMSEA= .04 [.03 - .05], SRMR = .02). Path analyses showed that higher residential instability was associated with increased harsh parenting behavior (, p < .05) holding other variables constant. The mediator, neighborhood cohesion was negatively associated with harsh parenting behavior ( = -.087, p < .01). After controlling for covariates, residential instability was associated with lower neighborhood cohesion ( = -.067, p < .001). Finally, the indirect effect through neighborhood cohesion ( = .006, p < .05) was also statistically significant.

Conclusions and Implications: Residential instability was associated with harsh parenting behavior through decreased neighborhood social cohesion. Although this study cannot find out that families have moved out of previous neighborhoods, it demonstrates that they perceived less neighbors’ trust after they experienced an unstable housing situation. Physically rooted in place through stable housing helps families build supportive networks in a neighborhood that has a preventive effect against harsh parenting behavior.