Beth Molnar

As one saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child, but what if the village itself is detrimental to children? An award-winning study led by HSPH Assistant Professor Beth Molnar has suggested that children living in poorer, violent neighborhoods are more likely to suffer parental abuse or corporal punishment than children elsewhere.

"Through a number of studies, we have evidence that neighborhoods do make a difference regarding the health of their residents," said Molnar, an assistant professor in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. "This study was the first to take a multilevel approach to see whether neighborhoods affect the amount of parent-to-child physical aggression used by individual families."

Published in Child Maltreatment in 2003, "A Multilevel Study of Neighborhoods and Parent-to-Child Physical Aggression" was recently honored by the journal as the best article it published during that volume series. Two co-authors were Stephen Buka, an associate professor in the Departments of Society, Human Development, and Health and Epidemiology, and Felton Earls, a professor at HMS and at HSPH. The researchers used data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, an intensive study directed from HSPH and HMS that includes a longitudinal study of children, adolescents, and young adults and the neighborhoods in which they live.

The researchers’ analyses revealed that neighborhoods with higher rates of socioeconomic disadvantage, murder, and unemployment were associated with higher rates of parental violence against children. That violence includes both severe child abuse, such as scalding with hot water, and corporal punishment, such as spanking with an open palm.

Molnar recognizes that different forms of corporal punishment may be perceived as appropriate by some parents. However, research has suggested that there is no long-term benefit to corporal punishment, and there may in fact be harm, she noted. The web site of the American Academy of Pediatrics offers alternative tips on correcting childhood misbehavior without involving violence.

Neighborhoods with more immigrants had lower rates of parental violence. Social support systems also seemed to play a positive role, particularly for Hispanic populations, whose lower rates of abuse and corporal punishment were associated with dense social networks in the neighborhoods.

Traditionally, interventions to curb child abuse and parental violence have been aimed at individuals and families. Molnar and her colleagues’ work supports that approach, but also calls for intervening at the neighborhood level. Alleviating socioeconomic disadvantage and violence within a community, while making it easier for people to come together socially, may not only make a neighborhood healthier, but also protect its youngest residents.