Abstract
While researchers have found evidence that Canadian neighbourhoods can have an impact on
children's behaviour, how much they matter and in what ways they matter remain somewhat
unclear. The first data collection cycle of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children
and Youth (NLSCY), which took place in 1994-1995, was used in this study. The first part
examines neighbourhood and family effects on children's physical aggression, hyperactivity-inattention, anxiety-emotional problems and prosocial behaviours. The second part of the study focuses on the effects of neighbourhoods on physical and indirect forms of aggression (e.g., gossip).
One consistent neighbourhood effect is that parents tend to characterize as more aggressive
children living in neighbourhoods reported to have higher levels of problems (e.g., crime,
disorder). Another finding was that poor neighbourhoods were not necessarily more likely to
produce aggressive children. Also, children living in rural neighbourhoods were less likely to
exhibit anxiety-emotional problems compared to children in large cities.
The study reveals that individual and family characteristics have much more of an impact on
children's behaviour than neighbourhoods. Parents reported that boys were more physically
aggressive, more hyperactive-inattentive, and less prosocial than girls. Older children were
reported to exhibit greater anxiety-emotional problems, greater prosocial behaviours, and less
hyperactivity-inattention. Family structure played a role in behaviour outcomes in that children
from single-parent families were more physically aggressive, hyperactive-inattentive, and anxiousemotional than children living with both biological parents. The type of parenting reported was also related to children's behaviours, with punitive parenting having negative effects and
consistent parenting having positive effects. The socioeconomic status of families was not
strongly associated with children's behaviours once we took into account the family,
neighbourhood, and individual factors.
This study confirms results from other studies indicating that before 12 years of age, individual
and family characteristics are more strongly related to children's behaviour problems than
neighbourhood characteristics. From our analyses of the first cycle of the NLSCY data, children
who appear most at risk of behaviour problems are young males living in a dysfunctional family
with young depressed mothers who do not live with the father.
What's New
