Neighborhood Danger, Parental Monitoring, Harsh Parenting, and Child Aggression in Nine Countries

Date
2014-01-22Author
Skinner, Ann T.
Bacchini, Dario
Lansford, Jennifer E.
Godwin, Jennifer W.
Sorbring, Emma
Tapanya, Sombat
Tirado, Liliana Maria Uribe
Zelli, Arnaldo
Alampay, Liane Peña
Al-Hassan, Suha M.
Bombi, Anna Silvia
Bornstein, Marc H.
Chang, Lei
Deater-Deckard, Kirby
Di Giunta, Laura
Dodge, Kenneth A.
Malone, Patrick S.
Miranda, Maria Concetta
Oburu, Paul
Pastorelli, Concetta
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Exposure to neighborhood danger during childhood has negative effects that permeate multiple dimensions of childhood. The current study examined whether mothers’, fathers’, and children’s perceptions of neighborhood danger are related to child aggression, whether parental monitoring moderates this relation, and whether harsh parenting mediates this relation. Interviews were conducted with a sample of 1293 children (age M = 10.68, SD = 0.66; 51% girls) and their mothers (n = 1282) and fathers (n = 1075) in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). Perceptions of greater neighborhood danger were associated with more child aggression in all nine countries according to mothers’ and fathers’ reports and in five of the nine countries according to children’s reports. Parental monitoring did not moderate the relation between perception of neighborhood danger and child aggression. The mediating role of harsh parenting was inconsistent across countries and reporters. Implications for further research are discussed, and include examination of more specific aspects of parental monitoring as well as more objective measures of neighborhood danger.