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Neighborhood influences on perceived social support among parents: findings from the project on human development in Chicago neighborhoods.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Social support is frequently linked to positive parenting behavior. Similarly, studies increasingly show a link between neighborhood residential environment and positive parenting behavior. However, less is known about how the residential environment influences parental social support. To address this gap, we examine the relationship between neighborhood concentrated disadvantage and collective efficacy and the level and change in parental caregiver perceptions of non-familial social support. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The data for this study came from three data sources, the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) Study's Longitudinal Cohort Survey of caregivers and their offspring, a Community Survey of adult residents in these same neighborhoods and the 1990 Census. Social support is measured at Wave 1 and Wave 3 and neighborhood characteristics are measured at Wave 1. Multilevel linear regression models are fit. The results show that neighborhood collective efficacy is a significant (ß = .04; SE = .02; p = .03), predictor of the positive change in perceived social support over a 7 year period, however, not of the level of social support, adjusting for key compositional variables and neighborhood concentrated disadvantage. In contrast concentrated neighborhood disadvantage is not a significant predictor of either the level or change in social support. CONCLUSION: Our finding suggests that neighborhood collective efficacy may be important for inducing the perception of support from friends in parental caregivers over time.

SUBMITTER: Tendulkar SA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3320905 | biostudies-other | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:BackgroundIn the United States, due to residential segregation, racial minorities and families with low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to live in less safe neighborhoods than their White and high SES counterparts. As such, in the US, race and SES closely correlate with neighborhood safety. Due to the high chronicity of stress in unsafe neighborhoods, perceived neighborhood safety may be a mechanism through which race and SES are linked to children's mental health. Simultaneously, race and SES may alter the effects of perceived neighborhood safety on children's mental health.AimTo explore racial and SES differences in the effects of neighborhood safety on children's internalizing symptoms, we compared racially and SES diverse groups of American children for the effects of parents' perceived neighborhood safety on children's internalizing symptoms.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 10484 children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Mixed-effects regression was used for data analysis. The predictor variable was parents' perceived neighborhood safety which was treated as a continuous measure. The primary outcome was children's internalizing symptoms reported by children. Race, parental education, household income, and family structure were moderators.ResultsOverall, the parents' high neighborhood safety was associated with lower levels of internalizing symptoms in children. Race and household income showed statistically significant interactions with subjective neighborhood safety on children's internalizing symptoms. Parents' perceived neighborhood safety showed a stronger inverse association with children's internalizing symptoms for Black than White families. Parents' perceived neighborhood safety showed a stronger inverse association with children's internalizing symptoms for high income than low-income families. Parental education or family structure did not show any significant interaction with parents' perceived neighborhood safety on children's internalizing symptoms.ConclusionThe degree to which neighborhood safety may be associated with children's internalizing symptoms may depend on race and household income. Some of the effects of race and SES on children's mental health outcomes may be due to interactions with contextual factors such as neighborhood safety. More research is needed on why and how diverse racial and SES groups differ in the association between perceived neighborhood safety and children's well-being.

Project description:BackgroundParental burnout is a concept that reflects the emotional exhaustion and emotional distance of parents from children due to their inability to cope with the pressure of parenting. It has been confirmed that parents of autistic children are at higher risk for parental burnout. Additional research has suggested a relationship between parental burnout and parents' personality traits. However, the relationship between alexithymia, an independent personality factor, with parental burnout is little to none.ObjectiveTo look into the connection between parental burnout and alexithymia among parents of autistic children.MethodThree hundred and one parents were approached for recruitment and data were collected from 203 parents through a cross-sectional survey assessing parental burnout, alexithymia status, and perceived social support. Because the data is not normally distributed, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient rho(p) was used to assess the correlation between the variables; and then using AMOS to analyze the mediating effects of perceived social support and the moderating effect of gender.ResultThe result showed that (1) There is a negative association between alexithymia with parental burnout (β = 0.6, p < 0.01), while perceive social support was the negative predictor of alexithymia (β = -0.45, p < 0.01) and parental burnout (β = -0.26, p < 0.01); (2) perceive social support partially mediated the relationship between alexithymia and parental burnout of parents of autistic children, which can explain 16.3% of the total effect; (3) Gender plays a moderating role in the first half of the indirect effect of alexithymia on parental burnout, as evidenced by the significant difference in path coefficients between the male and female models (male: β = -0.10, p < 0.05; female: β = -0.60, p < 0.05).ConclusionHealth professionals and policymakers should be aware of parental burnout among parents of autistic children in China and take early intervention steps. Furthermore, they should recognize the negative impact of alexithymia and the positive impact of social support when developing plans to alleviate parental burnout in children with autism, with a particular focus on mothers with alexithymia, who are more likely to experience low social support and burnout than fathers with alexithymia.

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Neighborhood influences on perceived social support among parents: findings from the project on human development in Chicago neighborhoods.

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