Neighborhoods

Conditions in children's neighborhoods, including low socioeconomic status and other factors, can place them at a risk for abuse and neglect. Furthermore, social attitudes and the promotion of violence in cultural norms and the media have been suggested as risk factors for physical abuse.

The ACE Learning Collaborative for Buncombe County (PDF - 668 KB)
Wade, Shea, Rubin, & Wood (2014)
Pediatrics, 134(1)
Identifies and examines the range of adverse childhood experiences faced by children who grow up in a low-income, urban area. Experiences include stressors, personal victimization, economic hardship, and others.

Children's Exposure to Violence: Indicators of Child and Youth Well-Being (PDF - 867 KB)
Child Trends (2016)
Outlines data related to children's exposure to violence in 2014, which finds children are more likely to be exposed to violence than adults, and children exposed to violence are more likely to become victims or perpetrators of further violence.

Community Disorder, Victimization Exposure, and Mental Health in a National Sample of Youth (PDF - 296 KB)
Turner, Shattuck, Hamby, & Finkelhor (2013)
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 54(2)
Considers whether elevated distress among youth living in disordered neighborhoods can be explained by personal exposure to violence and victimization. Researchers examined previous exposure to child maltreatment, sexual victimization, peer bullying, and property crime, among other variables.

Examines how the drug environment may affect child physical abuse and neglect by parents and looks at the relationship between drug use, drug availability, and child maltreatment using multilevel models. City-level rates of drug abuse and dependence were found to be related to more frequent physical abuse, and parents who use drugs in areas with greater availability of drugs reported more physical abuse and neglect towards their children.

Geography Matters: Consider Family and Child Well-Being in the Context of Community (PDF - 1,475 KB)
Casey Family Programs (2015)
Explains how children and families should be viewed in the context of their social environments, and provides information on using community-level characteristics to better serve child welfare systems in the areas of prevention and child maltreatment.

Investigates whether individual and neighborhood disadvantages influence child maltreatment and finds that living in neighborhoods with high poverty is associated with increased levels of maltreatment, irrespective of individual poverty status. These findings suggest that both individual poverty level and neighborhood poverty affect child maltreatment.

Explores the relationship between neighborhood social disorganization and child maltreatment for Black, Hispanic, and White children. The study examines racial-ethnic diversity of neighborhood residents as a risk factor for child welfare system involvement.

Neighborhood-Level Social Processes and Substantiated Cases of Child Maltreatment (PDF - 1,116 KB)
Beardslee, Beatriz, Duncan, Gilsanz, Goerge, Hill, Holton, Molnar, & Subramanian (2016)
Child Abuse & Neglect, 51
Demonstrates that neighborhood structural factors can influence the number of children who will become victims of maltreatment. This study examines neighborhood-level data in Chicago to find associations between neighborhood social processes and child abuse.

Parenting and Proximity to Social Services: Lessons from Los Angeles County in the Community Context of Child Neglect (PDF - 220 KB)
Maguire-Jack & Klein (2015)
Child Abuse & Neglect, 45
Examines the role of proximity to social services in child neglect with the aim of understanding potential sources of social support in distressed neighborhoods. The results show an association between proximity to mental health and substance abuse services and parents' neglectful behaviors.

Prevalence of Childhood Exposure to Violence, Crime, and Abuse: Results from the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence
Finkelhor, Turner, Shattuck, & Hamby (2015)
JAMA Pediatrics, 169(8)
Presents information on trends in violence, crime, and abuse in the lives of children, drawing on data from the 2014 National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence.

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