Neighborhood Social Capital, Neighborhood Disadvantage, and Change of Neighborhood as Predictors of School Readiness

Abstract

Neighborhood income and social capital are considered important for child development, but social capital has rarely been measured directly at an aggregate level. We used Canadian data to derive measures of social capital from aggregated parental judgments of neighborhood collective efficacy and neighborhood safety. Measures of neighborhood income came from Census data. Direct measures of preschoolers' school readiness were predicted from neighborhood-level variables, with regional indicators and household/parental characteristics taken into account. Our findings show that (1) residing in Quebec, being Black, and having a parent who was born outside Canada are positively associated with children's living in disadvantaged or low collective efficacy neighborhoods as well as with their living in low-income households. (2) Children's odds of residential mobility were reduced when the origin neighborhood had higher collective efficacy but increased when the family rented rather than owned. (3) Both neighborhood collective efficacy and children's ever having lived in a poor neighborhood were correlated with receptive vocabulary scores, but results were mixed for other cognitive dimensions. Children of younger mothers scored worse on receptive vocabulary. There were similar patterns for demographic predictors related to visible minority status, sibship size, and birth order. Neighborhood average income had no effect on cognitive outcomes when the region was controlled.

Social-Ecological Correlates in Adult Autism Outcome Studies: A Scoping Review

“…49 Researchers in child and adolescent development consistently show that neighborhood disadvantage negatively affects school readiness and achievement. 50 Parents of TAY with autism have also reported that many services were not provided in a geographic area or were not convenient or accessible. 35 Other factors (like the number of job openings and community views of disability) may also contribute to the experiences and outcomes of TAY.…”

Family poverty and neighborhood poverty: Links with children's school readiness before and after the Great Recession

“…Vaden-Kiernan et al’s (2010) examination of a nationally representative sample of Head Start attendees found a slightly different pattern of associations: low neighborhood SES predicted lower receptive vocabulary and math skills and higher levels of parent-reported problem behavior, but not letter–word identification skills or teacher-reported behavior problems. Finally, a Canadian study found that having ever lived in a poor neighborhood during early childhood predicted lower vocabulary scores at age five (Jones & Shen, 2014). These studies show that neighborhood disadvantage predicts some dimensions of children’s school readiness, but suggest that the strength of these associations may differ across the specific measures and populations studied.…”

The Influence of Neighborhood Characteristics on HIV Treatment Outcomes Among Adults: A Scoping Review Protocol

“…People living with HIV with low SES are more likely to have poorer treatment outcomes 21 . Related to SES, neighborhood disadvantage is also a term used to describe a neighborhood where the percentage of households below the poverty-line are greater than a critical prevalence 22 . Likewise, neighborhood disadvantage reduces the likelihood of having a standard source of care and of acquiring services, while it increases the likelihood of having unmet medical needs as reduced resources encourage trade-offs between basic needs and health care 23 .…”

“…d. Neighborhood disadvantage referring to a community or neighborhood where the percentage of households below the poverty-line are greater than a critical prevalence 22 .…”