Poverty and Community-Level Risk

Question 1

Where does poverty fit into the etiology of maltreatment?

Answer 1

Poverty can fit in at all places

• Macrosystem: countries experiencing poverty
• Exosystem: community facing resource deprivation
• Microsystem: low-income families

Question 2

How do you define poverty at an individual/family level?

Answer 2

Are they above or below the poverty line?
Are they receiving public assistance?
It is a continuous measure of income or income-to-needs

Question 3

How do you define poverty at a neighborhood level?

Answer 3

What is the percentage of residents below the poverty line?

Question 4

What are some dimensions to consider when defining poverty?

Answer 4

• Depth of poverty
• Duration of poverty/low-income
• Timing of poverty (is the child really young or older?)
• Income instability
• Sources of income

Question 5

What are the confounding variables with poverty?

Answer 5

Poverty tends to co-occur with other risk factors
- teen parenthood
- single parenthood
- negative life events
- violence exposure
- marital distress
- parent psychopathology

Question 6

Do low-income parents maltreat their children?

Answer 6

MOST low-income parents do NOT maltreat their children

Question 7

What was the finding of the National Incidence Study on Child Abuse and Neglect?

Answer 7

Parents classified as low SES were 5 times more likely to maltreat their children as other parents

Most pronounced for neglect

Poverty and neglect are really tied together so its hard to separate

Question 8

What was the finding of the National Study on Child and Adolescent Well-being?

Answer 8

58.1% of families identified for maltreatment live below the poverty line

There was some association, families that were maltreating were likely to be poor but not by much

Question 9

What happens to parenting when higher-income families become poor?

Answer 9

Studies show that parenting/caretaking abilities decline under economic pressure

Suggests that when families are wealthy they are parenting healthier, but when they are poor and under stress that is affected

Question 10

Are low-income families more likely to be investigated for maltreatment?

Answer 10

It is possible even if they aren’t doing anything wrong which is reflective of discrimination

Question 11

Do poverty and maltreatment exert independent effects?

Answer 11

Yes, they do. Some of them can be overlapping - poverty can worsen the outcomes of maltreatment

Question 12

Why do we look at the neighborhood level?

Answer 12

On a map of Chicago, the darkest levels of poverty, overlap with the highest levels of violence, overlaps with a lower median family income and a dominant minority racial group

Question 13

What are the pathways by which neighborhoods are associated with maltreatment?

Answer 13

1. Influences on parenting behavior - neighborhoods may change behavior
2. Influences on definitions, recognition, and reporting
3. Selection - where family lives and the experience of maltreatment might be based on something different

Can all co-occur

Question 14

What is the behavioral influence on pathways?

Answer 14

Neighborhoods influence social processes that have an effect on parenting behaviors

Something about neighborhood conditions influences whether or not someone mistreats their child

Question 15

What is the definition, recognition, and reporting pathway?

Answer 15

Neighborhoods are associated with differences in how maltreatment reports are made and investigated

The neighborhood conditions influence neighborhood processes that then influence the reporting of maltreatment, since you don’t trust your neighbors, in this case

Question 16

What is the selection pathway?

Answer 16

Parents who are likely to select certain neighborhoods are also likely to maltreat

Something about a family determines where they live and determines whether they maltreat, sometimes it is how the neighborhood is set up

Question 17

What are the characteristics of neighborhood structure?

Answer 17

1. Neighborhood disadvantage - concentrated poverty and lack of resources
   
   • resources to strong education systems, parks, health care
2. Neighborhood demographics - unemployment rate
   
   • tells you something about the structural characteristics of a neighborhood
3. Neighborhood stability - residential instability
   
   • you have to pay attention to who’s in the
     neighborhood, who’s staying and leaving because of
     the connection and cohesion, if a lot of people are
     coming and going it’s harder for people to feel
     connected

Question 18

What are the neighborhood processes?

Answer 18

1. Collective efficacy: social cohesion among neighborhoods combined with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good
   
   • whether people are looking out for each other,
     shared value, willingness to step in and help
2. Social organization: patterns of social relationships, networks, communication
   
   • do you have a network of people around you, if you needed someone do you have access to someone you can depend on
3. Community resources: availability of and access to economic and social resources in the community

Question 19

What are the transactional processes? (Neighborhood -> Family)

Answer 19

1. Environmental stressors: increased stress on the family due to neighborhood dynamics
2. Social support (vs. Social isolation): perceptions of the availability of support

Question 20

What are the definition, recognition, and reporting processes?

Answer 20

How parents are reported and investigated - might have to do with something else like race and poverty

Question 21

Is the likelihood of maltreatment to occur different in rural vs urban areas?

Answer 21

Very similar for the likelihood of maltreatment to occur

Question 22

Who is in the community?

Answer 22

• Neighbors, friends, family
• Early childcare/daycare providers
• School system, teachers, principals
• Child welfare system, case workers
• Church organizations
• Support programs: shelters, food pantries
• Doctors and other providers

Question 23

Do neighborhoods matter in the study of maltreatment?

Answer 23

YES, neighborhood structure and processes can impact parenting