Interactions with community members and institutions: Preventive pathways for child maltreatment.
Parents interact with their environment in important ways that may impact their ability to parent their children positively. The current study uses data from the age 3 wave of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study to investigate whether neighborhood processes and community participation relate to internal control, and whether these three variables are associated with child maltreatment behaviors. Using structural equation modeling, the direct and indirect effects of the environment (neighborhood disorder, social control, and social cohesion) and community participation on child maltreatment are tested. The mediating variable tested is internal control. The results show that neighborhood processes and community participation are associated with child neglect, physical child abuse, and psychological aggression but that these associations are driven through their effect on internal control.
College of Social Work, Ohio State University, 1947 N College Road, Columbus, OH 43210, United States. Electronic address: cao.225@osu.edu.
Yiwen
Y
Cao
College of Social Work, Ohio State University, 1947 N College Road, Columbus, OH 43210, United States.
Kathryn
K
Maguire-Jack
D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology*; D062309:Community Integration; D003256:Community Participation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors
Child maltreatment; Community participation; Neighborhood; Structural equation modeling