Impact of Neighborhood Safety on the Association between Parental Knowledge and Delinquency

It is important to understand the role of sources of parental knowledge within the context of perceived neighborhood safety, which has clear implications for how parents should effectively gain knowledge of youth behavior depending on the perceived safety of the neighborhood in which they reside. The current study examined perceived neighborhood safety as a moderator of the relation between sources of parental knowledge (i.e., child disclosure, parental solicitation, and parental control) and child delinquency in a community-recruited sample of 89 children (56% male) ranging from 9 to 12 years of age (M = 10.44). Youth and their primary caregiver (85% mothers) responded to survey items. Findings suggested that the link between child disclosure and delinquent behavior was moderated by perceived neighborhood safety, such that the link between child disclosure and lower levels of delinquency weakens in neighborhoods perceived as less safe. In contrast, the link between parental solicitation and delinquency strengthened in neighborhoods perceived as less safe using both child and parent reports of delinquency, such that more solicitation was associated with higher levels of delinquent activity. Perceived neighborhood safety did not have a moderating effect on the relation between parental control and child-reported or parent-reported delinquency. Future directions are discussed.