Are early life neighbourhood contexts associated with later harsh parenting? Evidence from a population-based birth cohort study in Brazil

BACKGROUND: There is limited research on how neighbourhoods influence harsh and abusive parenting practices in the home, particularly in low and middle-income countries. OBJECTIVE: We investigated associations between caregiver-perceived neighbourhood characteristics (community violence and social cohesion) and later harsh parenting practices. Additionally, we examined whether higher levels of social cohesion would mitigate the association between neighbourhood violence and harsh parenting. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Data came from 3731 child-mother dyads enrolled in the 2015 Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort Study. METHODS: Neighbourhood contexts were assessed when children were age 4 years and included caregiver perceptions of violence occurrence in the neighbourhood in the past six months (fights with weapons, fights between gangs, robbery and sexual violence) and perceived neighbourhood social cohesion. Harsh parenting was measured using the parent-report version of the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale at age 6-7 years. Negative binomial regression analyses were performed to estimate associations. Adjusted models included mutual adjustment for neighbourhood violence and social cohesion, as well as sociodemographic confounders. An interaction between neighbourhood violence and social cohesion in predicting harsh parenting was tested. RESULTS: After adjusting for confounders, higher violence in the neighbourhood and lower perceived neighbourhood social cohesion were associated with later harsh parenting practices (IRR = 1.05; 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.07 and IRR = 1.04; 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.06, respectively). There was no evidence that social cohesion moderated the relationship between violence in the neighbourhood and harsh parenting. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that interventions to tackle community violence and to increase social cohesion have the potential to decrease parental harsh parenting in independent ways.