School of Social Service Administration and Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Child Abuse Negl. 2009 Dec;33(12):897-906. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2009.09.008. Epub 2009 Nov 8.
This study set out to examine whether mothers' individual perceptions of their neighborhood social processes predict their risk for physical child abuse and neglect directly and/or indirectly via pathways involving parents' reported stress and sense of personal control in the parenting role.
In-home and phone interview data were examined cross-sectionally from a national birth cohort sample of 3,356 mothers across 20 US cities when the index child was 3 years of age. Mothers' perceptions of neighborhood social processes, parenting stress, and personal control were examined as predictors, and three subscales of the Parent-To-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS-PC) were employed as proxies of physical child abuse and neglect risk. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test direct and indirect pathways (via parenting stress and control) from perceived neighborhood processes to proxy measures of physical child abuse and neglect. Multiple group SEM was conducted to test for differences across major ethnic groups: African American, Hispanic, and White.
Although perceived negative neighborhood processes had only a mild direct role in predicting risk for physical child abuse, and no direct role on child neglect, these perceptions had a discernable indirect role in predicting risk via parenting stress and personal control pathways. Parenting stress exerted the clearest direct role on both physical abuse and neglect risk. This predictor model did not significantly differ across ethnic groups.
Although neighborhood conditions may not play a clear directly observable role on physical child abuse and neglect risk, the indirect role they play underscores the importance of parents' perceptions of their neighborhoods, and especially the role they play via parents' reported stress and personal control.
Such findings suggest that targeting parents' sense of control and stress in relation to their immediate social environment holds particular potential to reduce physical child abuse and neglect risk. Addressing parents' perceptions of their neighborhood challenges may serve to reduce parenting risk via improving parents' felt control and stress.
本研究旨在探讨母亲对邻里社会进程的个体感知是否直接和/或通过涉及父母报告的育儿压力和个人控制感的途径，预测其遭受身体虐待和忽视的风险。
当索引儿童 3 岁时，对来自 20 个美国城市的 3356 名母亲的全国出生队列样本进行了入户和电话访谈。将母亲对邻里社会进程的感知、育儿压力和个人控制感作为预测因素，以及儿童对父母冲突策略量表（CTS-PC）的三个分量表作为身体虐待和忽视风险的代理指标。结构方程模型（SEM）用于测试感知邻里进程对身体虐待和忽视代理指标的直接和间接途径（通过育儿压力和控制）。进行多组 SEM 以检验主要族裔群体（非裔美国人、西班牙裔和白人）之间的差异。
尽管感知到的负面邻里进程对身体虐待风险的预测仅有轻微的直接作用，对儿童忽视风险没有直接作用，但这些感知通过育儿压力和个人控制途径对风险具有明显的间接作用。育儿压力对身体虐待和忽视风险均具有最清晰的直接作用。该预测模型在族裔群体之间没有显著差异。
尽管邻里条件可能在身体虐待和忽视风险方面没有明显的直接可观察作用，但它们所起的间接作用强调了父母对其邻里环境的看法，特别是他们通过父母报告的压力和个人控制所扮演的角色的重要性。
这些发现表明，针对父母对其直接社会环境的控制感和压力进行干预，具有降低身体虐待和忽视风险的特殊潜力。解决父母对邻里挑战的看法可能有助于通过改善父母的控制感和压力来降低育儿风险。
