Children's Perceptions of Their Neighborhoods

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Abstract

This study examined how children's perceptions of neighborhood violence and safety were related to their socio-emotional functioning, neighborhood violent crime rates, and parent ratings of neighborhood safety and violence. Two hundred twenty-three elementary school children (7–11 years old; 126 boys, 97 girls) from low n = 114 and high violence n = 109 communities in a large west coast city drew pictures of their neighborhoods, completed a neighborhood safety survey, and rated their perceived self-competence and locus of control. Parents rated the safety of their neighborhoods and children's prior exposure to violent events. The results showed children living in high violence neighborhoods felt unsafe playing outdoors, were more distrustful of the police, had lower perceived self-competence, an external locus of control, and more violent content in their drawings than did children living in low violence neighborhoods. The findings suggest that exposure to neighborhood violence may negatively affect children's feelings of well-being, sense of self, control over events in their lives, and opportunities to play safely in their neighborhoods.

Section snippets

Participants

The participants were 223 children (97 girls; 126 boys) 7 to 11 years old M = 8.94; SD = 1.28 who were recruited from several after-school programs in and around Los Angeles, California. The sample was heterogeneous and reflected the ethnic diversity of the wider urban area from which the children were drawn. Fifty-two children were African American, 101 were Latino, and 70 were European American.

One hundred nine children came from high violence neighborhoods (27 were African American, 52 were

Community Violence Rates and Perceptions of Neighborhood Safety

To examine how children's perceptions correspond to actual neighborhood violence rates and to parent ratings of neighborhood safety, we conducted chi-square analyses. In the high violence neighborhoods, 60% of the children and their mothers agreed on the safety of their neighborhoods and 40% disagreed; χ21 = 3.93, p = .05. Whereas in the low violence neighborhood, 92% of the children and their mothers agreed on the safety of their neighborhood, and 8% disagreed χ2 = n.s..

To examine parents'

Discussion

The results support our first hypothesis that children's perceptions of violence and safety would be related to their neighborhood violence rates. Although there were no significant differences between the neighborhoods in children's perceptions of safety at home, in school, and walking to school, children in the high violence neighborhoods reported feeling less safe playing in their neighborhoods than children from the low violence neighborhoods. A study on children's perceptions of

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the participating families and their children. We also extend a special thanks to the research team: Roxana Alvarez, Daniel Bolton, Michael Flannery, Stephanie Gates, Adriana Lozano, Kimberly Morris, Sonia Narang, Cathy Thielen, Lisa Sokol, Angela Thomas, and Gwen Velasco. This study was supported by a Faculty Grant for Research on Southern California awarded to the first author from the USC Southern California Studies Center.

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