Understanding the Early Years - Community Impacts on Child Development - August 1999

4. A Framework for Research and Data Collection

The research framework is a tool to examine the impact that residential communities may have on child development presented from the perspective of the Applied Research Branch of Human Resources Development Canada.

This section has three main purposes: It will create a framework for testing and measuring the ways in which communities may have an impact on children's development; it will examine the potential effects of community characteristics over and above individual and family variables; and hypothesize how these effects are achieved, all of which will help to focus both instruments and analysis on answering the research and policy questions.

4.1 Setting the Context

The community factors that affect children's outcomes, the processes by which they exert their effects and the relative importance of community effects compared to other factors are not clearly understood.

Do families select communities that have neighbourhood conditions that they consider desirable for raising children? (The question of choice and the fact that the lower the income, the fewer the options families may have can complicate analysis.)
Will children develop in certain ways regardless of the community in which they are raised?
If the child moves to another community that is more or less pro-child, will they continue to develop in the same ways?
Do community effects, particularly for young children, work through their parents, or even other adults? Does this change with age, as children use the wider community independently?
Do the number and characteristics of communities that the child has lived in have an effect and how enduring are these effects? Are communities more important at one stage in life and does that effect persist?
How does a community impact on a child's development? Which community variables exert the most impact? Some theories postulate negative effects on development, while others focus on the possible positive influences of community variables. Do communities have a risk or protective effect and does this depend on the characteristics of the child and his/her family?

The theories dealing with neighbourhood influences on child development suggest that these community impacts depend on the child's interactions with adult residents, the resources available, the resources used, and the characteristics (e.g., safe, clean) of the community.

4.2 Defining Communities

A neighbourhood can be defined for research purposes either geographically or socially, and past studies have employed both definitions. There are advantages and disadvantages associated with each type of definition. Often, for ease of analysis and because of the high reliance of previous research on census data, geographical boundaries have been favoured for research and analysis. This research will examine communities in a geographical context, (based on city boundaries) but will also explore the social relationships within neighbourhoods that may impact on a resident's sense of community and subsequently their children's development.

4.3 Community Factors that Influence Child Development

Although research has often focused on the impact children's individual, family, and peer characteristics may have on their healthy development, few studies have examined the role the child's community plays in the developmental process. Though conventional wisdom maintains that communities have an independent effect on children, empirical results are not clear. The relationships between community and child development are complicated and multiple. Therefore, the theories linking communities with child development rely on untested assumptions or partial explanations of these complex social phenomena. The theories, as they relate to the framework may be clustered in five groups.

4.3.1 The community as physical environment

The physical and infrastructure aspects of the community such as the quality of the homes, the presence or absence of graffiti and the presence or amount of green space are seen to affect the development and behaviour of children. These variables could be seen as indicators of a greater malaise or deterioration in a community, but may not be a direct influence on behaviour. Some theorists see a relationship between lower estimations of self-worth and poorer environments and the resulting negative behaviour that is a consequence. The Theory of Relative Deprivation is built on this assumption. Critics suggest that the community serves as backdrop or a context and therefore does not have a direct influence on development. Others indicate that the nature of the physical environment can affect the richness of the child's experience with consequences for development. It remains to be proven whether certain behaviours would occur regardless, due to individual or family factors rather than due to the neighbourhood.

4.3.2 The community as a social environment

Social characteristics of the community such as the average income and education of residents, diversity, number of single parents and number of children per adult resident may have an impact on the outcomes of children raised in the neighbourhood. The process by which they impact development is unclear. The Theory of Social Contagion focuses on the role of imitation, modelling, and social learning from the child's neighbourhood peers in shaping behaviours while the Theory of Collective Socialization is based on the impact of adult role models within the child's community. Proponents of social learning suggest children use role models from the community and aspire to community standards. Critics suggest that social learning occurs through interaction, generally with others who are similar. Such "anchoring" in the community is closely related to socio-economic status. Affluent families have more relationships outside the community that may be important to the family than do lower income families. Negative social environments may deprive children of positive social support and expose them to anti-social behaviour and peer pressure.

4.3.3 The community as a resource

Resources such as the local presence of facilities such as libraries, swimming pools, and scouting programs are important for the development of children. The quality and quantity of services available to families with children may have varying impacts on development. Related theories include Neighbourhood Resource Utilization and Competition for Resources. Difficulties arise because distribution of families is not random (i.e. families may choose to locate in communities that have desirable resources such as good schools, access to children's hospitals, and police protection) and such self selection may create bias. Furthermore, the presence of such resources does not ensure that they are used and there may be variation in use among the neighbourhood population. There appears to be a variation in the use of resources due to age and the time spent in the neighbourhood. For example, while small children may only use resources when taken to them by their parents, older children may independently and frequently use them. It has also been noted that those who spend more hours in the neighbourhood, such as non-working adults (young mothers), seniors, and teens may benefit more from the use of resources. Finally, when barriers to access such as location, time, transportation and, most commonly, cost arise, they can limit children's exposure to programs and services.

4.3.4 The community as a collectivity

Variables such as social cohesion and neighbourliness make a difference to the process of raising children. Homogeneous characteristics and shared values are considered to hold the residents together as a collectivity. Collective efficiency is more likely when there is social cohesion. Two antecedents are issues. First, residents may select communities that mirror their values and interests and second, a certain stability in the population is required for such a collectivity to develop. Critics suggest that such variables may serve as factors for positive development but that social norms may not prevent negative development. Also that diverse neighbourhoods may have sub-groups with social norms, based on other factors than neighbourhood residence.

4.3.5 The community working for common good

Residents are involved in their communities because they see the value of working toward a common good, where everyone benefits. In such cases, residents are willing to make investments in their community as they are rewarded both as individuals and as members of their larger society. On the one hand, variables of shared interest would include the presence of community associations, and community activities such as block parents and block parties, and on the other hand indications of community responsibility, such as willingness to intervene in a fight, report incidents, and discipline or protect children. Theories of collective efficacy and collective socialization fall into this category. These interactions may be sustained efforts or occur at specific times as required. The resulting social networks are considered a benefit but critics have noted that social networks may be built along class lines. Furthermore, individuals with lower incomes cannot make the time investment required for the common good when they are preoccupied with making a living. Some have suggested that self-policing has a stronger effect on negative behaviour than socialization, which may contribute to positive behaviours. In any case, adults may consider such actions more worthwhile than do the children in these neighbourhoods.

4.4 Framework for Studying Community Impacts on Child Development

Communities can affect children's development through a variety of pathways. Figure 1 depicts a framework of the relationship of components and how these processes may work. Research results elucidating the interplay of these relationships would equip communities to better respond to the needs of their children, and would enable all levels of government to make effective policy and program decisions to enhance child development.

The framework accommodates multiple mechanisms of impact. Central to the framework is the understanding that children are part of larger communities. Factors describing these communities (e.g., safety, neighbourhood and average socio-economic characteristics) can have an impact on their development. If a child has spent time in more than one community, it is likely that the characteristics of their previous community environment(s) also play a role in shaping their development. In such cases, accounting for the influence of the child's past environment will be important in order to fully understand how communities may have their impact (depicted by the two interlocking rectangles to the left of Figure 1). Frequent moving for instance, may result in an impaired sense of stability and attachment between the child and his/her community. Moving into a better neighbourhood may serve as a protective factor while moving into a worse one may be a risk factor.

The larger arrows represent the directions in which the community has its impact. Children and their families regularly interact with their larger communities, and depending on the community's characteristics, either draw benefits or increase risk of problems as a result. Community factors can effect children directly, and can also influence them indirectly through interactions with their parents, which then filter down to the child. The arrows are two-directional because the relationships are dynamic with the child's (or children's) physical, emotional, social, and cognitive characteristics influencing their larger community while the community's characteristics are simultaneously impacting on the child's development.

Figure 1: Framework for Research on Community Influences on Child Development

The text between the two arrows represents the main ways, (based on existing theories of community influence) by which the community has its impact. Each of these influences was summarized above. Though the relationships are different depending whether the impact is directly on the child or through the parent, the underlying concepts are similar.

The final component of the diagram is the child's outcomes shown as five inter-linked balls, which represent the domains of child development. Whether the community's influence is felt directly or indirectly, it has an impact on the child and this impact is observed through these developmental outcomes. A holistic view of child development requires healthy development across five main outcomes: physical health, emotional and social development, cognitive learning, and language communication. Communities may influence each of the five outcomes and impact them differently. Lines connect each of the developmental domains because they are all inter-related and may impact or be impacted by the others.

4.5 Research Questions

Research using this framework should determine whether or not communities impact child development over and above individual and family variables, and if they do, the mechanisms for such an effect and the type and degree of change in the outcome. The following policy-relevant research questions are proposed.

1. How do communities impact child outcomes? What is the relative importance of these factors compared to other factors affecting child development?

2. What factors in the community support child development making it "pro-child" or a good place to raise children?

Physical and infrastructure environment (presence of parks, conditions of buildings)
Characteristics of the community (education, income, safety) - the social environment
Community resources (presence and use of facilities and services)
Characteristics of residents (cohesion, common interest)

3. Do communities have a differential impact depending on the developmental domain and stage of development of the child?

Contents