Farmer Gregory, MacDonald Sheila W, Yamamoto Shelby S, Wilkes Chris, Pabayo Roman
School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.
Department of Pediatrics and Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.
J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2022 Aug;31(3):135-143. Epub 2022 Aug 1.
Several studies have linked neighbourhood environment to preschool-aged children's behavioural problems. Income inequality is an identified risk factor for mental health among adolescents, however, little is known as to whether this relationship extends to younger children.
To explore the association between neighbourhood-level income inequality and general psychopathology problems among preschool-aged children.
We analyzed data from the All Our Families (AOF) longitudinal cohort located in Calgary, Canada at 3-years postpartum. The analytical sample consisted of 1615 mother-preschooler dyads nested within 184 neighbourhoods. Mothers completed the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth Child Behaviour Checklist (NLSCY-CBCL), which assessed internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Income inequality was assessed via the Gini coefficient, which quantifies the unequal distribution of income in society. Mixed effects linear regression assessed the relationship between neighbourhood income inequality and preschooler's general psychopathology.
The mean Gini coefficient across the 184 neighbourhoods was 0.33 (SD = 0.05; min, max: 0.20-0.56). In the fully adjusted model income inequality was not associated with general psychopathology in children β = 0.07 (95%CI: -0.29, 0.45). Neighbourhood environment accounted for 0.5% of the variance in psychopathology in children.
The lack of significant findings may be due to a lack of statistical power in the study. Future studies should investigate this relationship with appropriately powered studies, and over time, to assess if income inequality is a determinant of preschooler psychopathology in Canada.
多项研究已将邻里环境与学龄前儿童的行为问题联系起来。收入不平等是青少年心理健康的一个已确定的风险因素，然而，对于这种关系是否延伸至年幼儿童，人们知之甚少。
探讨邻里层面的收入不平等与学龄前儿童的一般精神病理学问题之间的关联。
我们分析了来自加拿大卡尔加里“我们所有的家庭”（AOF）纵向队列产后3年的数据。分析样本包括嵌套在184个邻里中的1615对母婴。母亲们完成了《儿童和青少年全国纵向调查儿童行为清单》（NLSCY-CBCL），该清单评估了内化和外化症状。收入不平等通过基尼系数进行评估，基尼系数量化了社会中收入的不平等分配。混合效应线性回归评估了邻里收入不平等与学龄前儿童一般精神病理学之间的关系。
184个邻里的平均基尼系数为0.33（标准差 = 0.05；最小值，最大值：0.20 - 0.56）。在完全调整模型中，收入不平等与儿童的一般精神病理学无关，β = 0.07（95%置信区间：-0.29，0.45）。邻里环境占儿童精神病理学方差的0.5%。
缺乏显著发现可能是由于该研究缺乏统计效力。未来的研究应以具有适当效力的研究调查这种关系，并随着时间推移评估收入不平等是否是加拿大学龄前儿童精神病理学的一个决定因素。
