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Problem behaviour in children influenced more by where they live than by family income

Neighbourhood level and individual level SES effects on child problem behaviour: a multilevel analysis 2001;55:246-50

The neighbourhood a child grows up in may be more important than family income and education levels for influencing behaviour, suggests research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The researchers assessed the behaviour of 734 children between the ages of 5 and 7, as reported by their parents. They also assessed parental income, educational levels, and other socio-economic indicators.

The families lived in Maastricht, the Netherlands, a city with varying levels of affluence and social deprivation. Just over a third of the children and over half the least educated parents lived in the most deprived neighbourhoods.

Divorced and low income families are more at risk of having children with problem behaviour. And the results showed that parents who had divorced were significantly more likely to report problem behaviour in their children. And children whose parents had low status jobs and who were less well educated had significantly more behaviour problems than other children.

The research also showed that children living in the most and moderately deprived neighbourhoods had significantly more behaviour problems than children living in the least deprived neighbourhoods. But parental income, marital status, and educational levels could only partly explain this finding. It held true, irrespective of these factors.

The authors conclude that at-risk children are therefore more likely to have behaviour problems when they live in deprived neighbourhoods than when they live in more affluent ones. They suggest that deprived urban neighbourhoods suffer from poor social cohesion, as well as amenities. And it is these factors which influence a child's tendency to anti-social and criminal behaviour.

Contact:

Professor Jim van Os, Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Maastricht University. Maastricht, the Netherlands. j.vanos@sp.unimaas.nl

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