NCJ Number
60303
Date Published
Unknown
Length
29 pages
Annotation
Methodology and results are reported from a study that tested the hypothesis that "social impoverishment" is a characteristic of family environments having a high risk for child maltreatment.
Abstract
This study builds upon previous work designed to identify the environmental correlates of child maltreatment (Garbarino, 1976; Garbarino and Crouter, 1978), by 'screening' neighborhoods to identify high- and low-risk areas on the basis of the discrepancy between actual and predicted rates of child maltreatment. The present study examines a pair of neighborhoods, one high-risk and the other low-risk, for child maltreatment, matched on socioeconomic characteristics. It tests the hypothesis that although socioeconomically matched, the two neighborhoods present contrasting environments for childrearing. Data were obtained from interviews with expert informants (ranging from elementary school principals to mailmen) which were used to develop neighborhood profiles of family stresses and supports in the two neighborhoods. Samples of families were drawn from each neighborhood for more interviews emphasizing sources of help, social networks, evaluation of the neighborhood, and use of formal family support systems. The results corroborate with the neighborhood risk scores. Families in the high-risk neighborhood, though socioeconomically similar to families in the low-risk neighborhood, report less positive evaluation of the neighborhood as a context for child and family development. Further, they reveal a general pattern of 'social impoverishment' that parallels findings at the neighborhood level. The study intends to provide students sympathetic to the 'ecological perspective' of child maltreatment with some of the conceptual and methodological approaches necessary to translate theoretical and policy perspectives into research practice. Table data and references are provided. (RCB)