Physical environmental adversity and the protective role of maternal monitoring in relation to early child conduct problems

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Abstract

Research on the development of externalizing behaviors during early childhood has focused on child and parenting factors. Fewer studies have investigated effects of aversive features of the micro-level physical environment, such as overcrowding and chaos in the home, and the macro-level environment, such as neighborhood quality. This study extends research on physical environmental factors by examining their association with children's early externalizing behaviors, and exploring how maternal monitoring may serve as a protective factor in such contexts. 120 male toddlers at high risk for developing early externalizing behaviors were followed from ages 2 to 5 years. Direct longitudinal associations were found for micro-level environmental factors beginning at age 2 and for neighborhood risk beginning at age 3. Maternal monitoring served as a protective factor for child externalizing behaviors in the context of neighborhood risk. Implications for prevention research and the development of early externalizing behaviors are discussed.

Introduction

Recent research indicates that early-starting trajectories of child externalizing behaviors can be identified beginning in early childhood (Aguilar et al., 2000, Campbell et al., 2000, Moffitt, 1990, Shaw et al., 2003). Both epidemiological and developmental studies have found externalizing behavior to be highly stable beginning as early as age 2, particularly among males (Cummings et al., 1989, Olweus, 1979, Shaw et al., 2000). Similar to older children, behavior problems beginning in early childhood are associated with child characteristics (Calkins et al., 1999, Caspi et al., 1997, Raine et al., 1998), parental psychopathology (Leadbeter and Bishop, 1994, Osofsky and Thompson, 2000, Panaccione and Wahler, 1986, Rose et al., 1989, Shaw and Vondra, 1995), parenting (Gardner et al., 1999, Shaw et al., 2003, Shaw et al., 1998), and distal, sociodemographic risk factors, such as parent education, marital status, childbearing age, and neighborhood violence (Chase-Lansdale et al., 1997, McLanahan, 1997, Nagin et al., 2003, Wikstrom and Loeber, 1999). That is, both micro (home and family) and macro (community) physical environmental factors are associated with child externalizing behaviors.

For the purposes of the current paper, the physical environment was defined as the material setting in which social transactions occur, including both the home environment (e.g., Matheny and Phillips, 2001, Wachs, 1989, Wohlwill and Heft, 1987) and the community (e.g., Evans and English, 2002, Evans et al., 2001). Thus, the social environment both occurs in and is influenced by the context of the physical environment (Wohlwill, 1983). Characteristics of the physical environment, including small enclosed physical spaces, have been shown to alter individuals' social behavior. For example, elevators have been found to increase individuals' tendency to withdraw from social interaction and overcrowded prisons have been associated with increases in aggression towards others (Burgess and Fordyce, 1989, Lawrence and Andrews, 2004, Regoeczi, 2003).

As multiple disciplines (e.g., business, sociology, community, ecology, epidemiology; Blalock, 1984, Bronfenbrenner, 1989, Kellam et al., 1999, Shinn and Rapkin, 2000, Spence, 1999) have studied these contexts, it should not be surprising that there is variability in how micro- and macro-environments have been defined. For the purposes of the current paper, we define the micro-level environment as the immediate or intimate settings such as the classroom, family, peer group, or work place (Bronfenbrenner, 1989, Kellam et al., 1999) where children have daily contact with other children and/or adults. The macro-level environment encompasses a child's broader context, including the neighborhood and surrounding community that forms a culture or subculture in which the child lives (Bronfenbrenner, 1989, Kellam et al., 1999).

Though studies have examined many of these factors independently, few have examined how both micro-level family factors and macro-level community factors may be related to the development of early externalizing behaviors (Ackerman et al., 2004, Ackerman et al., 1999, Keller et al., 2005, Shaw et al., 1998). In addition, there have been few studies examining potential protective factors that might buffer the negative effects of family and community environmental risk on the development of children's early externalizing behaviors. The current study tested both direct effects and protective factors within the micro- and macro-level environment as they relate to the development of child's behavior problems (see Fig. 1 for the theoretical model).

Research has found that lack of structure in both micro- (e.g., Dumas et al., 2005, Shaw et al., 2004, Shaw et al., 2006) and macro-level environments (e.g., Brody et al., 2001, Kohen et al., 2002, Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn, 2000, Sampson et al., 1997) is related to the development of behavior problems. Wilson and Neckerman (1987) argue that the lack of routines and structure in the micro-environment (e.g., chaotic home) may simply mirror similar breakdowns in the macro-environment (e.g., low collective efficacy in the neighborhood). Homes characterized by high chaos and/or overcrowded conditions have elevated rates of conflict, competition for resources, and few routines and organization (Dumas et al., 2005, Evans et al., 1998, NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2004, Regoeczi, 2003), each of which has been found to contribute to the development of children's externalizing behaviors (e.g., Cox et al., 1984, Low and Stocker, 2005, Regoeczi, 2003, Shaw et al., 2006, Webster-Stratton and Hammond, 1999).

Similarly, neighborhoods that are low in social structure (e.g., collective efficacy) have been found to have residents who demonstrate elevated rates of externalizing behaviors (Brody et al., 2001, Kohen et al., 2002, Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn, 2000, Sampson et al., 1997). Children living in neighborhoods low on social structure are expected to more often witness peers or adults engaging in deviant behavior and, similar to the home environment, experience externalizing behavior being condoned by omission.

Growing up in a low-socioeconomic (SES) environment has been identified as a risk factor for the development of child behavior problems (Chase-Lansdale and Gordon, 1996, Dodge et al., 1994, Duncan et al., 1994, Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn, 2000) and the same low SES environments have been found to have a high number of physical environmental risk factors (e.g., overcrowding, poor neighborhood quality, chaos; Evans, 2004, Federman et al., 1996, Myers et al., 1996). In turn, these risk factors place children at greater risk for the development of behavior problems.

Overcrowding in the home has consistently been found to be related to negative outcomes for humans and animals in multiple contexts (e.g., Cox et al., 1984, Maxwell, 2003, Ouagazzal et al., 2003, Regoeczi, 2003, Xigeng et al., 2004). Overcrowding has been defined in terms of density of living space, with more persons than rooms useable for living (i.e., bedrooms, living rooms; Rutter et al., 1975, United States Census Bureau, 2000). Families living in poverty tend to experience overcrowding in the home because of their inability to afford larger accommodations, often necessitating the sharing of a residence by extended family members, such as grandparents (Baydar and Brooks-Gunn, 1998, Caputo, 1999). When examined simultaneously, overcrowding in the home has proved to be a more reliable predictor of child externalizing behavior than family size (Fagan and Najman, 2003, Kalff et al., 2001).

Overcrowded conditions in the home have been associated with behavior problems in children (Shaw et al., 1998), adolescents (West & Farrington, 1977), and adults (Lawrence and Andrews, 2004, Kposowa et al., 1995, O'Brien, Shichor, & Decker, 1982−1983). Such associations have been attributed in part to higher rates of conflict among residents in more crowded conditions (Evans et al., 1998, Regoeczi, 2003) and competition for resources, such as individual attention and emotional support (NICHD ECCRN, 2004). Because of the relatively large percentage of time toddlers spend in the home environment relative to the neighborhood and broader community, we expected associations between overcrowding and externalizing behaviors to be evident earlier than for macro-level factors such as neighborhood quality.

Chaotic homes are characterized by frequent foot traffic (e.g., neighbors, family, children), phone calls, and noise (e.g., children, electronics, etc.), as well as disorganization (e.g., difficult to find items; Dumas et al., 2005). Chaotic homes may have frequent transitions of adults and children in the environment and are a centralized socialization location for the extended family and neighborhood members. The measurement of chaos provides a qualitatively rich assessment of the organizational structure of the home, and although chaos may occur more often in overcrowded homes, previous research suggests that chaos and the number of people in a home are only modestly related (Dumas et al., 2005).

Chaos in the home, a micro-level factor in the current study, has been negatively associated with cognitive (Petrill, Pike, Price, & Plomin, 2004) and social (Wachs, Gurkas, & Kontos, 2004) development in preschool-age children and with child behavior outcomes in school-age children (Dumas et al., 2005). In addition, chaos in the home has been associated with parenting factors that contribute to the development of externalizing behavior (e.g., level of maternal responsivity; Corapci & Wachs, 2002), and factors shown to compromise caregiving skills (e.g., parenting stress; Dumas et al., 2005, Evans et al., 1998). With the exception of the literature cited, little research has been conducted on associations between chaos in the home and child externalizing behaviors, particularly in early childhood. Similar to overcrowding, it was hypothesized that chaos would be directly related to children's behavioral outcomes at earlier ages than macro-level environmental factors due to the higher amount of time young children spend in the home versus their neighborhood (Research Connections, 2005).

The majority of research investigating associations between physical environmental factors and child outcomes has focused on neighborhood quality (e.g., Greenberg et al., 1999, Kohen et al., 2002, Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn, 2004, Sampson, 1983, Sampson et al., 1997). Typically, low SES neighborhoods include risk factors such as poverty (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2003), high unemployment (McLoyd, 1990), and dangerousness (Wikstrom & Loeber, 1999), each of which has been associated with child externalizing behaviors (Brooks-Gunn et al., 1993, Chase-Lansdale and Gordon, 1996, Deater-Deckard et al., 1998). Although there are multiple theories of mechanisms by which neighborhoods influence the development of externalizing behavior, most models focus on lack of access to individuals with education and employment (e.g., Wilson, 1996), lack of collective efficacy (e.g., Sampson et al., 1997), normalization of violence, and exposure to deviant peers (e.g., Guerra et al., 2003, Schwab-Stone et al., 1995).

Previous research has focused most heavily on neighborhood effects for adolescents (Ingoldsby & Shaw, 2005) because of their greater self-reliance and time spent outside of the home and in the neighborhood relative to younger children. This potentially makes them more susceptible to the influence of deviant neighborhood peers and adults in communities where collective efficacy is low (Dishion, Capaldi, Spracklen, & Li, 1995). However, in the most impoverished North American neighborhoods, research suggests that children as young as age 3 can be directly affected by their neighborhood quality after accounting for more proximal risk factors (Brooks-Gunn et al., 1993, Kohen et al., 2002). Specifically, the presence of few managerial and professional workers in the neighborhood has been associated with later externalizing problems among 3–5 year old children, with similar results found for other neighborhood factors and later externalizing problems (Brooks-Gunn et al., 1993, Kohen et al., 2002, Matheny and Phillips, 2001, Winslow and Shaw, submitted for publication). However, to our knowledge, previous research has not examined the influence of neighborhood quality on externalizing behavior in children younger than 3 years old. In contrast to micro-level physical environment factors, for which we anticipated associations with externalizing behaviors would be evident earlier, we did not expect to see significant associations between neighborhood factors and child externalizing behaviors emerge until at least age 3 years when children begin to spend more time outside of the home through their growing independence and new relationships with peer groups outside of the family (Caspi et al., 1997, Duncan et al., 1994).

At a broad level, parental monitoring of children's activities and well-being has been widely studied in relation to child externalizing behavior, but primarily with school-age and adolescent populations (Dishion and McMahon, 1998, Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn, 2000, Loeber and Dishion, 1983, Pettit et al., 2001). Parental monitoring has been defined as a set of correlated parenting behaviors involving attention to and tracking of children's whereabouts and activities (Dishion & McMahon, 1998). Though much of the parental monitoring research has utilized measurements that focus on parents' knowledge of their children's peers and activities that occur outside of the home, Dishion and McMahon's definition indicates an even broader array of parenting behaviors and suggests that these behaviors may change over time as the child matures.

Although much of the research on parental monitoring has focused on school-age children and adolescents (e.g., Brown et al., 1993, Fletcher et al., 1995, Kolko and Kazdin, 1986, Kolko and Kazdin, 1990), the importance of parental monitoring in children's activities can be traced back to early childhood, particularly toddlerhood. During these years, young children gain a newfound independence (e.g., walking and talking) that often requires active monitoring on the part of their caregivers to ensure the safety of the child, valuable property, pets, and other family members (Shaw, Bell, & Gilliom, 2000). For example, low parental monitoring has been related to increased accidental poisonings in children 3 to 7 years of age (Brayden, MacLean, Bonfiglio, & Altemeir, 1993), exposure to household safety hazards in children between the ages of 6 months to 4.5 years (Glik, Greaves, Kronenfeld, & Jackson, 1993), and handling of hazardous substances in grocery stores in preschool-age children (Harrell & Reid, 1990). In the context of schools, higher rates of student victimization have been found in overcrowded classrooms (Khoury-Kassabri, Benbenishty, Astor, & Zeira, 2004), which has been attributed to teacher' inability to monitor and actively engage students.

It is reasonable to expect similar dynamics in overcrowded or chaotic homes, where parents are less able to monitor child behavior. In addition, in an overcrowded or chaotic home where there are multiple adults and children within enclosed areas with frequent distractions, interruptions and competition for attention makes it challenging for mothers to spend focused time with one particular child. In fact, preschool-age children who spend more time wandering aimlessly and are not interacting with/being monitored by their mother have been found to have an increased risk of externalizing behavior over time (Gardner, Ward, Burton, & Wilson, 2003).

However, a parent who addresses the challenges posed by a chaotic or overcrowded home or dangerous neighborhood by more rigorously structuring the child's home environment and monitoring the child's activities in the neighborhood may decrease the risk of child externalizing behavior. For example, parents high on monitoring would be expected to more regularly know where the child is and what the child is doing, as well as setting aside time to connect personally with the child (e.g., playing, talking with them during housework). In fact, research indicates that parents of early adolescents who effectively monitor their children's exposure to neighborhood influences, both when they are young and concurrently, have children with low levels of externalizing behavior (Brody et al., 2001, Pettit et al., 1999).

Therefore, a second goal of the current study was to examine the potential protective effects of maternal monitoring in relation to different types of physical environment risk. Though parental monitoring has been shown to be associated with reduced risk of delinquent activity for adolescents (Patterson & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1984), few studies have examined if monitoring serves as a protective factor in relation to externalizing behavior within the context of physical environment risk in early childhood (Shaw et al., 2006).

The current study tested two hypotheses. First, based on previous research, we expected to find direct associations between overcrowding and chaos in the home, neighborhood quality, and later child externalizing outcomes both at home at age 4 and in school at age 5.5. We expected such relations to be found beginning at age 2 for overcrowding and chaos, but not until age 3 for neighborhood quality. Second, we hypothesized that maternal monitoring at age 2 and 3 would serve as a protective factor to moderate the effects of chaos and overcrowding in the home, and neighborhood dangerousness on children's later externalizing behaviors.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants included 120 mother–son dyads recruited from the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) Nutritional Supplement Program in the Pittsburgh, PA metropolitan area. The sample was restricted to male children due to the greater prevalence of serious behavioral issues in male versus female children. Families were approached at WIC sites and invited to participate if they had a son between 17 and 27 months old, following a screen to ensure that they met the study criteria by having

Analysis plan

The statistical analysis for the current study was chosen to examine both direct and indirect associations between predictor and outcome variables. First bivariate correlations were used to examine direct effects between predictor and outcome variables. Second, hierarchical linear regressions were used to examine the direct relationships after accounting for potential covariates of SES, ethnicity and treatment status. Finally, to test whether maternal monitoring acted as a moderator for the

Discussion

This study examined associations between risk factors in children's physical environment and the development of early externalizing behavior. In addition, we investigated the potential protective role of maternal monitoring in relation to risk factors in the physical environment. Consistent with expectations, both micro- and macro-physical environmental risk factors were related to later child externalizing behaviors. However, overcrowding and neighborhood quality were predictive of children's

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the reviewers and Anne Gill for her thoughtful contributions to the manuscript. We would also like to thank the families of the Pitt Early Steps Project for their participation. Note that research was supported by grant MH06291 from the National Institute of Mental Health and grant DA016110 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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