The Role of Family Problem-Solving and Neighborhood Social Cohesion on Child Socioemotional Learning Among Families with Low-Income

Socioemotional learning (SEL) is linked to a broad range of child outcomes, with income playing an important role in child SEL, yet most work has compared high- and low-income children yielding less understanding of variability in risk and protective factors within low-income families and communities. Building upon theories in the positive youth development literature and public health frameworks exploring social determinants of health, this study explored the role of family problem-solving, neighborhood social cohesion, and neighborhood resources in understanding child SEL within 1097 low-income families of 3- to 5-year-old children who participated in the National Survey of Children’s Health. Using confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression, results indicated that family problem-solving, neighborhood social cohesion, and neighborhood resources each uniquely accounted for the variability in child SEL above and beyond covariates. There were no interactions between the independent variables. These results move beyond a between-group deficit focused perspective common in the literature on children and families, including the SEL literature in particular, toward a more nuanced understanding of correlates of SEL within low-income families that can inform future longitudinal and intervention research.