Citation

Lord H, Mahoney JL. Dev. Psychol. 2007; 43(6): 1321-1333.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Lord.Heather@bcg.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1321

PMID

18020814

Abstract

This longitudinal study evaluated associations among official rates of neighborhood crime, academic performance, and aggression in a sample of 581 children in 1st-3rd grade (6.3-10.6 years old). It was hypothesized that the influence of crime depends on children's unsupervised exposure to the neighborhood context through self-care. Average weekly hours in self-care were trichotomized into low (0-3), moderate (4-9), and high (10-15). Moderate and high amounts of self-care were linked to increased aggression and decreased academic performance for children from high-crime areas (11,230 crimes per 100,000 persons) but not average-crime areas, when the authors controlled for neighborhood, family, and child covariates. In high-crime areas, academic outcomes were more favorable when self-care occurred in combination with after-school program participation.

Language: en