Neighborhood resources and stressors associated with parenting inputs for children's learning and development

Prior research has assessed the ways in which neighborhoods promote or inhibit children's development but has paid less attention to delineating the particular processes through which neighborhoods are linked to child outcomes. This study combines geospatial data with survey data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort of 2010-2011, a nationally representative sample of kindergarteners followed through 5th grade (N ~ 12,300), to explore how differences in neighborhood resources (parks and services) and stressors (crime and neighborhood disadvantage) are associated with variations in parental inputs-school involvement and provision of out-of-home enrichment activities. Using multilevel models assessing within- and between-family associations, we found mixed evidence concerning how neighborhood features are linked to parental inputs. Considering within-family changes in neighborhood contexts, concentrated disadvantage negatively predicted parental inputs, particularly following a move to a more disadvantaged neighborhood. Results were more consistent between families: concentrated disadvantage was associated with lower school involvement and out-of-home enrichment, while community services and parks were associated with more involvement and enrichment. Neighborhood crime was not associated with parental inputs. Results shed light on methodological limitations of neighborhood effects research and suggest the need for more rigorous methods, such as natural experiments which can capture exogenous changes in neighborhood processes.