Influence of a Violent Neighborhood on Parental Messages about Violence

Background: Living in violent neighborhoods has been shown to alter adolescents' social-cognitions and increase aggressive behavior. A similar process may also occur for parents and result in parental support of aggressive behavior. This research examines the influence of neighborhood violence and neighborhood collective efficacy on parents' attitudes toward fighting and the messages they give their adolescent children about how to resolve interpersonal conflict.

Method: African-American parents and adolescents were recruited from 3 inner-city middle schools to participate in a randomized controlled trial of a parenting intervention to reduce violence. These data come from 144 baseline questionnaires completed by both the parent and adolescent. All scales had high internal consistency. Models were estimated using structural equation modeling in MPlus.

Results: Exposure to neighborhood violence was not predictive of either aggressive attitudes or conflict solutions for either parents or adolescents. A mixed effect was found for neighborhood collective efficacy. Higher neighborhood collective efficacy was not related to either parental or adolescent attitudes about violence. However, higher collective efficacy was predictive of less violent conflict solutions advocated by parents and internalized by adolescents. Conclusion: Parents' and adolescent' perceptions of the cohesiveness and social control of their neighborhood directly influence the messages that adolescents receive about how to resolve interpersonal conflict. This suggests that for parents in violent neighborhoods it is not their experiences with violence that influence their response, but rather their appraisal of the neighborhood. This finding supports interventions to improve collective efficacy as an effective method to reduce neighborhood violence perpetration.