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

5.1 Background

Neighbourhood socio-economic characteristics (e.g., family structure, educational, employment, and income rates) have often been associated with child outcomes. Neighbourhoods of a higher socio-economic status have been linked to reduced maltreatment rates, increased verbal abilities and motor social, behavioural, and cognitive functioning of children. Disadvantaged neighbourhoods have reported higher levels of delinquency, crime, and teenage pregnancies in their older children.

A wealth of socio-economic information is collected through the NLSCY and other similar studies. Only recently have more of the social characteristics of communities (neighbourhood cohesion or attachment) been measured in larger scale studies, though most are American and have focused on older children. Although the NLSCY currently contains questions regarding some of the social aspects of communities (e.g., safety, cohesion, mobility) questions are needed to ensure a complete list of community variables.

In order to develop the questions for measurement it is important to consider the five ways in which communities may impact children's development according to theories discussed in the framework. High quality physical environments, with more resources, strong social networks, positive role models, and residents who can work together toward common goals all have the potential to enhance child development. However, the processes by which these factors have their influence remain unclear, due in part to the difficulties of measuring the dynamic nature of the interactions that communities have with their members. In addition, these relationships may be at work not only in the child's current community of residence but also in any other neighbourhood in which he or she has lived previously. Therefore, sufficient community data are necessary to test the effects of these motions, and to identify proven policy-relevant variables that can be targeted for policy action. When data needs were closely examined, a two pronged data strategy appeared to be the best option, first an expanded community section in the NLSCY Parent Questionnaire and second, a Community Mapping Study.

5.2 Purpose

The overall goal was to create the best instruments to measure and understand community influences. Choices regarding adding and removing questions on instruments were made based on direction provided through consultations, past studies, existing literature, and the research questions.

The purpose of this chapter is to outline the data needs in order to measure the impact of various aspects of communities on children's development. The chapter consists of two sections. The first looks at potential questions posed to parents regarding their perceptions of their communities and their use of resources within the area. The second section outlines some of the main concepts to be measured in the Community Mapping Study of community characteristics and available resources.

5.3 The NLSCY Parent Questionnaire - Community Component

Although recently some research has been undertaken to assess the influence of community variables on children's development, most of these studies have not examined the relationship on young children. Studies examining community impacts on youth, have focused mainly on adolescents or older children perhaps because as children age their social interactions broaden and their communities have a more direct impact on their development. There were few studies with questions regarding community impacts on young children that could be drawn on, even though the NLSCY would have benefited from research experience with operationalization and field tested questions.

The NLSCY currently contains questions about most of the community variables identified as important in the literature. However, enhanced content (particularly with a child-centered focus) is needed in order to identify the full impacts of communities on children's development. In accordance with the research framework, further questions are required about the child's movement between neighbourhoods, the levels of safety and cohesion in those neighbourhoods and especially the child's use and frequency of use of community resources. The Parent Questionnaire therefore, will be amended to include the parents' perception of the community and its characteristics and their awareness and use of available resources. Additional questions should be kept to a minimum so as not to overburden respondents and items that can be collected by observation (i.e., in the Community Mapping Study) should be excluded from the Parent Questionnaire.

5.4 Community Mapping Study

The Community Mapping Study has two main purposes. First it serves to complement the NLSCY Parent Questionnaire, allowing measurement of concepts that were not feasible in the parent interview (either because of time constraints or because the parent would not be the best source of information). Secondly, objective information is collected about the community, its characteristics, and its resources without relying on parents' perceptions.

The Community Mapping Study will also be important in empirically determining the characteristics and resources of specific communities that are associated with healthy child development, and the distribution of resources in relation to the distribution of children in residential areas. This study will map out the community in terms of its child-related resources, services, and programs. It will also examine general conditions of residents' neighbourhoods including general safety, quality of infrastructure, and incidence of problem behaviour (such as crime or delinquency). Services will be classified according to their main purposes: education, sports and recreation, entertainment and culture, social, health and wellness, and special interests.

Other sources of data, such as the census (for measures of population density, and diversity such as the number of languages spoken) and administrative records from local police and municipalities will also be assembled to gain a more complete picture of the communities characteristics.

5.5 Data Collection Strategy

Based on the discussion in this chapter, concepts to be measured in both sections have been combined into one chart and are presented in Table 1. They have been classified according to the categories of community influence outlined in the research framework. Some overlap does exist, in that some of the concepts to be measured could have been classified in more than one of the categories. In such cases, the category that best describes the item was chosen. (See Table 1 for details of the data strategy).

Table 1: Data Collection Strategy for North York Community Project Pilot for Understanding the Early Years Community Impacts on Child Development
Notes:
1.	Items to be measured are listed in the left-most column. Method of data collection (NLSCY, resource availability to be mapped, neighbourhood observation, or social and economic statistics) is listed on the right. Efforts will be made to collect data on all listed items, however, in cases of data shortages, particularly for items relying on existing databases, modifications may be required. Questions are subdivided according to the category in which they were classified in the community framework paper (e.g. the community as a physical environment, a social environment, as providing resources to parents and young children, as a collectivity, and as working for the common good.)
2.	Bolded items are those already present on the NLSCY and are contained in the chart so the reader can understand the breadth of coverage for each category.

The Community As:	NLSCY	Community Mapping
The Community As:	NLSCY	Resource availability	Neighbourhood observation	Census and other statistics
1. A Physical Environment
For the child being surveyed
- Dwelling owned by a member of the household	X
- Dwelling subsidized by the government for any reason	X
- Dwelling in need of repairs	X
- Number of bedrooms in dwelling	X
- Type of dwelling	X
- Presence of good parks, playgrounds, and play spaces in neighbourhood	X
- Number of years child has lived in neighbourhood	X
- Perception of neighbourhood as a place to bring up children	X
- Number of times child has moved, or changed his/her place of residence	X
- In comparison to previous neighbourhood, rating of neighbourhood as a place to raise children	X
For the child's neighbourhood
- Number of subsidized units in neighbourhood				X
- General condition of most of the buildings on the block			X
- Presence of abandoned houses or stores			X
- Percent of dwellings in need of major repair in neighbourhood			X
- Condition of streets and roads			X
- Volume of traffic on the street or road			X
- People exhibiting anti-social behaviours (e.g., intoxicated, loitering, fighting)			X
- Presence of garbage, litter, or broken glass in the street or road, on the sidewalks, or in yards			X
- Based on street level frontage, land use in neighbourhood			X
- Presence of public parks or playgrounds		X
- Quality of equipment and buildings in parks and playgrounds			X
- Lighting conditions in neighbourhood			X
- Number of people (families, children) seen in neighbourhood			X
- Amount of noise in the neighbourhood			X
- Number of stop lights and cross walks			X
- Width of streets			X
- Transience in neighbourhood (percent families moving in and out)				X
- Population density				X
2. A Social Environment
For the child being surveyed
- Safety for outdoor play during the day	X
- Safety in walking alone in neighbourhood after dark	X
- Perception of child's safety because of the rate of crime in neighbourhood	X
- Presence of adults in neighbourhood that children can look up to	X
- Perception of neighbourhood as a place to bring up children in terms of	X
a) the number of families with children
b) good schools, nursery schools
c) adequate facilities for children (e.g., playgrounds, pools)
d) safe and clean community
e) presence of health facilities
f) active, involved residents
g) accessible public transportation			X
- Interviewer assessment of safety when walking in neighbourhood
For the child's neighbourhood
- Reported incidents of violence (including domestic violence) burglary, assault, and homicide				X
- Number of collisions per intersection per million vehicles per year				X
- Incidence of crime in public schools				X
- Juvenile crime rates				X
- Child abuse/neglect cases confirmed per 1,000 children				X
- Percent of children in foster homes or in care				X
- Housing affordability ratio - house and rent prices (income spent on rent)				X
- Home ownership in neighbourhood percent of low income dwellers, mean education, occupation, and income of neighbourhood, unemployment rates				X
- Family structure, adult to child ratios				X
- Child care supply and demand				X
- Diversity of neighbourhood (ethnic, cultural, linguistic)				X
- Density of households in neighbourhood				X
3. Providing Resources to Parents and Children
a. Educational Resources
For the child being surveyed
- Child's visits to the library	X
- Child's attendance at nursery school, play group, or other early childhood program or activity (not including child care programs or time spent in elementary school) - specify (e.g., nursery school, toy library, drop-in centre, infant stimulation program, play group, mom and tot program)	X
- Number of hours in attendance at programs (per week)	X
- Child's use of book clubs or literacy programs (i.e., dial a story)	X
- Child and parent's use of family or parent resource centres, support services or programs (e.g., Parent Child Resource Centre for Mom & Tots, family support network)	X
- Parent's attendance at parenting classes, courses, or workshops (total hours)	X
- Child's attendance at educational centres or workshops (e.g., science centre)	X
- Child's participation in enrichment programs (i.e. Better Beginnings Now, Adventure Place Early Intervention Programs)	X
- Location of the majority of these resources (available within a short walk bus ride or drive from home)	X
For the child's neighbourhood
- Availability of drop-in, parent or family resource centres		X
- Availability of parenting classes, parent relief and family support programs		X
- Availability of book clubs, literacy programs, libraries, toy libraries		X
- Availability of other educational centres and workshops		X
- Distribution of schools, nursery schools, and kindergartens		X
- Distribution of play groups, early childhood programs, child care centres, day cares, family home care etc...		X
- Availability of enrichment programs (Better Beginnings and CAP-C sites, Adventure Place)		X
- Availability of services for children with special needs (children with or at risk of problems) such as behavioural, developmental, physical, mental, speech language problems, and infant stimulation programs.		X
- Library books borrowed per juvenile				X
- Distance to school from school boundaries		X
b. Sports and Recreation
- Child's use of the parks and play spaces in neighbourhood		X
- Child's participation in sports involving coaching or instruction (outside of school hours in the past 12 months)		X
- Child's participation in unorganized sports or physical activities		X
- Child's participation in any clubs, groups, or community programs with leadership, such as Beavers, Sparks or church groups		X
- Parent's involvement in any sports, music, or arts related groups (e.g., coaching, music or dance lessons)		X
- Child's use of recreational or community centres in neighbourhood		X
- Child's use of indoor, outdoor, and wading pools		X
- Child's use of other recreational resources not mentioned - specify		X
- Location of the majority of these resources (available within a short walk, bus ride, or drive from home)		X
For the child's neighbourhood
- City parks/recreation expenditures per capita				X
- Location and distribution of indoor, outdoor, and wading pools in neighbourhood		X
- Location and distribution of skating rinks		X
- Location and distribution of recreational or community centres in neighbourhood		X
- Other centres offering sports and recreational programs		X
- Usage/attendance rates for recreational and community centres				X
c. Entertainment and Culture
For the child being surveyed
- Child's participation in lessons or instruction in music, dance, art, or other non-sport activities	X
- Frequency of child's attendance at the following:	X
a) Movies
b) Theatre (plays)
c) Art shows or exhibits
d) Museums
e) Zoos
f) Spectator sports (watching hockey or baseball)
g) Music performances
h) Child activity or play centres (e.g., gymborees, arcades)
- Location of the majority of these resources (available within a short walk, bus ride, or drive from home)		X
For the child's neighbourhood
- Presence of and general attendance at museums, art galleries, zoos, indoor/outdoor amusement centres)		X		X
- Presence of shopping facilities		X
- Number of courses available at public schools (e.g., art, music)		X
- Art performances in public areas (i.e., parks)		X
- Children's festivals, performers, or events		X
d. Special Interest
For the child being surveyed
- Other than on special occasions (such as weddings or funerals) frequency of family's attendance at religious services or meetings in the past year	X
- Parent involvement in any local voluntary organizations such as school groups, church groups, community or ethnic associations	X
- Frequency of parent involvement in any of the following local voluntary organizations:	X
a) school associations (including PTA)
b) religious affiliated groups
c) neighbourhood, civic or community associations
d) cultural or ethnic affiliated associations
e) political or advocacy associations
For the child's neighbourhood
- Presence of places of worship in neighbourhood		X
- Availability of recycling programs		X
- Number of members of chamber of commerce		X
e. Health and Wellness
For the child being surveyed
- In the past 12 months number of times parent has seen or talked on the telephone with any of the following about their child's physical or mental health:	X
a) A general practitioner/family physician
b) A pediatrician
c) Another medical doctor (such as an orthopedist, or eye specialist)
d) A public health nurse or nurse practitioner
e) A dentist or orthodontist
f) A psychiatrist or psychologist
g) Child welfare worker or children's aid worker
h) Any other person trained to provide treatment or counsel (e.g., speech therapist or social worker)
- Use of parent help line (caring for kids)	X
- Use of a home visitation program	X
For the child's neighbourhood
- Availability of family doctors, pediatricians, dentists, eye specialists, other MD's (e.g., orthopedist), public health nurse or nurse practitioners		X
- Presence of health clinics, hospitals		X
- Presence of pediatric hospitals		X
- Presence of mental health clinics and psychologists / psychiatrists		X
- Presence of counselling programs		X
- Calls to parent help lines				X
- Availability of nutrition or other health programs (e.g., pre- and post-natal care/support programs, breastfeeding clinics/classes, health promotion/education programs)		X
f. Societal
For the child being surveyed
- Reasons child did not participate in programs or services within community:	X
a. Child was not interested in participating
b. Resources were only available to older children
c. Resources were not available in preferred language
d. Programs were too costly
e. Difficulty getting to the program or service (i.e., no bus, no car, no parking)
f. There is not enough time
g. Unaware that resource existed
h. Concerned about the level of quality the service provided
i. Other. Specify .....
For the child's neighbourhood
- Presence of emergency response services - rates per 1000 people (police, fire, ambulance, community policing), 911 use		X		X
- Presence of crisis centres		X
- Availability of multicultural services or services for newcomers and immigrants		X
- Availability of public transportation and programs providing transportation to those in need		X
- Public buildings accessible to disabled people		X
4. A Collectivity
For the child being surveyed
- Child experiencing problems (e.g., bullying) with older children when playing in the neighbourhood	X
- Number of children child knows that live within walking distance to his/her house	X
- Frequency of child's visits with other children in neighbourhood	X
- Perception of community (close knit)	X
- Willingness of neighbours to help each other out	X
- Adults in neighbourhood can be counted on to watch out that children are safe and don't get into trouble	X
- Neighbours keep their eyes open for possible trouble when respondent is away from home	X
- Frequency of contact (visits or talking) with neighbours	X
For the child's community
- Existence of a community newspaper				X
- Signs announcing community meetings or events				X
5. As Working for the Common Good
For the child being surveyed
- Willingness of neighbours to get together to deal with problems	X
- Participation/involvement solicited by a local organization	X
- Frequency with which respondent votes in municipal, provincial, or federal elections	X
For the child's neighbourhood
- Adult volunteer rate				X
- Youth volunteer rate				X
- Voting rates				X
- Presence of Neighbourhood Watch Groups or Block Parents		X
- Presence of non-government organizations (such as the Lung Association, The Boys and Girls Club)		X
- Numbers and usage rates of food banks or food assistance/clothing programs		X		X

5.5.1 The community as a physical environment

This section focuses on the infrastructure and physical characteristics within a neighbourhood that could help or hinder child development. The Mapping Study will collect the majority of these data through direct observation. Administrative data can provide the most reliable estimates of land use, traffic, and the general conditions of buildings in the area.

Residential mobility is an important variable with regard to the physical quality of the past and present neighbourhood. Current questions in the NLSCY are sufficient to determine the effects that the experience of a move has on children's development. However, in order to determine whether the characteristics of the communities in which the child has lived have an independent effect, it is important to know whether by relocating the child has moved to a neighbourhood that would be better or worse for enhancing development. Parents of children who have moved are now asked to rate (based on characteristics hypothesized to influence development) their new neighbourhood in comparison to their old one.

5.5.2 The community as a social environment

There is no dispute in the literature that safety is an important component of a healthy community. Safety, fear, and in a broader sense whether the neighbourhood is a good or bad place for children to grow up (which encompasses an element of safety) has been linked to better verbal ability scores in preschoolers, fewer behavioural problems and increased participation in sports, arts, and community programs (which in turn has a further beneficial effect on children's development). Drug involvement has also been found to be higher for youth living in bad neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood safety can affect the child directly (if they are victimized) or indirectly through the parent's reactions to or fears of victimization.

Parent's perceptions of their neighbourhoods are important as they influence their actions and level of comfort in daily activities. In addition, when children are young and spend the majority of their time with their parents, these perceptions can also influence the way the child views his/her world. Therefore, it is important to collect data on parents' perceptions of safety as it relates to their children and how this may influence the decisions that they make about their child and his or her safety. Moreover, because of the important role of social learning in shaping the behaviours of young children, data on the levels of delinquency (or conversely stability and safety) in communities will be collected. Perceptions of the social environment will be measured through the Parent Questionnaire, but complemented with data from the Mapping Study.

5.5.3 The community as a resource

Available, affordable, and accessible child friendly resources within the community are key to healthy development. The presence of libraries, sports and craft programs, and resource and parent drop-in centres can all foster development in each of the five outcomes outlined in the framework. Although there is no dispute that community resources are crucial determinants of positive outcomes, few studies have examined their role in the developmental process and therefore, few questions would be adopted from other surveys.

This section in the NLSCY is not comprehensive enough and will require the greatest enhancement. Some questions on children's participation in sports, arts and community programs were included in the activity section of the Parent Questionnaire and questions on children's use of childcare services are plentiful. One study employing the existing NLSCY questions did find that participation in sports and arts programs increased if there were good parks, playgrounds, and play spaces available in the neighbourhood and that increased participation in unsupervised sports or the arts had the additional impact of decreasing incidence of problem behaviours.

Questions in this additional component will measure residents' resource use, frequency of use, and barriers to access. The Mapping Study will heavily complement questions in the NLSCY as it will depict, in detail, the distribution of the community's resources. Research results on the relationships between resource use and child outcomes will be important in helping communities decide where to focus their financial investments and voluntary effort in the future.

Resources were classified according to six main headings: Education, sports and recreation, entertainment and culture, special interest, health and wellness, and societal. In the Mapping Study the availability of programs and services within the child's community are measured. And, in the Parent Questionnaire respondents are asked about the frequency with which they or their children use certain child-centered resources, and whether the said resource was present within their community or involved travel outside the community.

Assessing some of the reasons for non-use of resources within a community may reveal important information about barriers. There are many reasons why families may not make use of available resources, including accessibility problems (e.g., cost, location), time or other constraints, or simply lack of interest. Barriers preventing resource use are important concerns for community planners involved in targeting, prioritizing, and service distribution decisions.

5.5.4 The community as a collectivity

Social cohesion refers to the sense of neighbourliness and belonging among community members and the extent to which they come together to deal with problems, are willing to help and trust each other, and share similar goals and values. Greater cohesion and collective efficacy (to be discussed in the following section) among neighbourhood residents have been associated with fewer behavioural problems and higher verbal competence in young children, lower levels of delinquency in older children (e.g., drug use), and decreased incidence of violence and personal victimization in adults.

Measures of cohesion (particularly in relation to children's parents) are currently very strong on the NLSCY, however some additions are necessary. In order to enhance the focus of measures on the child, questions concerning the child's social networks, friends, and experiences in the neighbourhood were added. Questions have been added on whether or not the child is interacting with other children within the community and if so, the frequency of such interactions, both of which should contribute to the child's sense of community belonging. All but two questions (the existence of a community newspaper and the presence of signs announcing community events) will be measured on the Parent Questionnaire.

5.5.5 The community for the common good

The concept of collective efficacy describes the willingness of neighbourhood residents to act to achieve a shared or common good of their larger community. Activities of residents who are concerned about the common good extend past helping out only in times of trouble to taking pro-active roles in ensuring the well-being of the entire community. Communities highly focused on the common good would likely have strong resident participation in programs providing services for the neighbourhood's children, such as Neighbourhood Watch, as well as higher volunteer rates. Most of this information will be collected through the Community Mapping Study.

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