According to experts, neighborhoods with abandoned homes and garbage-filled lots could be more than just eyesores for those living nearby. New research suggests the perceived quality of a community may influence a child’s behavior.
Social scientist Mengying Li, Ph.D., lived in an East Baltimore neighborhood while attending graduate school. It’s there that Li found inspiration for her public health research: what other factors do parents perceive as making a neighborhood high quality or poor quality for raising kids?
“Once I actually heard a gunshot at my doorstep, and like probably a teenager got shot in his back,” detailed Li.
Li and fellow researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health studied data on 3,500 kids over a span of ten years, from birth to age 12. Researchers say parents rated the perceived quality of their neighborhood for raising children, with a score of one being the poorest to a high of five. Many of the poor-quality blocks had dilapidated homes, garbage, signs of drug use on the sidewalks and lots of noise.
“Children who live in poor quality neighborhoods would have more externalizing behaviors,” explained Li.
Kids who had problem behaviors, like fighting, bullying, cheating or being destructive predicted more severe outcomes later in life, but researchers say caregivers can help a child change direction.
“If there is a change of environment, say if they have improvements in their family relationship or the neighborhood condition, they actually might have an opportunity to improve,” said Li.
Researchers say most caregivers knew they were living in a neighborhood that wasn’t the best for raising kids but they were unable to leave for many reasons including the cost of housing, proximity to jobs, and childcare. Researchers say future studies may measure whether current housing programs can mitigate some of those factors and impact a child’s behavior.
