An Alternative to Residential Neighborhoods: An Exploratory Study of How Activity Spaces and Perception of Neighborhood Social Processes Relate to Maladaptive Parenting

Abstract

Background The environments where parents spend time, such as at work, at their child's school, or with friends and family, may exert a greater influence on their parenting behaviors than the residential neighborhoods where they live. These environments, termed activity spaces, provide individualized information about the where parents go, offering a more detailed understanding of the environmental risks and resources to which parents are exposed. Objective This study conducts a preliminary examination of how neighborhood context, social processes, and individual activity spaces are related to a variety of parenting practices. Methods Data were collected from 42 parents via door-to-door surveys in one neighborhood area. Survey participants provided information about punitive and non-punitive parenting practices, the locations where they conducted daily living activities, social supports, and neighborhood social processes. OLS regression procedures were used to examine covariates related to the size of parent activity spaces. Negative binomial models assessed how activity spaces were related to four punitive and five non-punitive parenting practices. Results With regards to size of parents' activity spaces, male caregivers and those with a local (within neighborhood) primary support member had larger activity spaces. Size of a parent's activity space is negatively related to use of punitive parenting, but generally not related to non-punitive parenting behaviors. Conclusions These findings suggest social workers should assess where parents spend their time and get socially isolated parents involved in activities that could result in less use of punitive parenting.

A momentary exposures analysis of proximity to alcohol outlets and risk for assault

“…In recent years, there have been substantial advances in methods used to assess physical exposure to neighborhood features in the areas where study participants spend time (known as ‘activity spaces’) . Using survey methods or Global Positioning Tracking (GPS) tracking to approximate participants’ routine movements, physical exposures are measured within polygons that capture each person's unique activity space. This approach provides greater spatial specificity compared to measures based on home location alone .…”

An Exploratory Study of Parenting in Public Places: What Can We Learn from Parents’ Activity Locations and Physical Punishment?

“…Given that we condition the clusters on the use of physical punishment, we would expect to see significant differences on these variables. The lack of differences by personal characteristics provides support for the theory that parenting can be transmitted similar to contagious diseases (Freisthler et al 2016) in that it may not be particular characteristics of an individual that determine use of punitive parenting, but instead the social processes to which they are exposed. Having more contact, even incidental contact, with individuals who use physical punishment more frequently may send the message that these parenting behaviors are normative.…”

“…Understanding parenting context through activity spaces is still in its infancy (Noah 2015). Larger activity spaces are related to less frequent use of punitive parenting (Freisthler et al 2016); drinking events among parents are more likely to occur at rare (i.e., not routine activity space) locations (Freisthler et al 2019); size of activity spaces appears to differ by income and age of children (Price Wolf et al 2017). These findings remain exploratory based on small sample sizes and do not provide a larger theoretical framework to explain how activity spaces may affect parenting.…”

“…These findings remain exploratory based on small sample sizes and do not provide a larger theoretical framework to explain how activity spaces may affect parenting. Freisthler et al (2016) theorize that activity spaces could be one means by which individuals are socialized into parenting. Larger activity spaces (i.e., parents who have polygons covering with a larger area in square miles) may mean parents are exposed to a variety of parenting styles while smaller ones may suggest a parent is socially isolated.…”

From the dark end of the street to the bright side of the road: Automated redistricting of areas using physical barriers as dividers of social space

“…There are studies that utilize geographical information more refined than just the administrative areas. The point of proximity to define neighborhoods is becoming more common when trying to understand smaller areas of living (Damm and Schultz-Nielsen, 2008; Feld, 1981; Freisthler et al, 2016; Grannis, 1998; Jones and Huh, 2014; Jones and Pebley, 2014; Kwan, 2013; Lee and Campbell, 1997; Lee et al, 2008; Logan et al, 2011; Patterson and Farber, 2015). Many of the papers try to go further than to use general administrative areas, but because of either data limitations or problems in linking this to geography, they struggle to either propose a general model that can be utilized on a macro scale or produce areas that follow a specific logic.…”