A Multilevel Study of Young Children's Emotional Health: Individual, Family, and Neighborhood Influences

The follow-up study to the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), this project used data from the PHDCN to examine individual, family, and neighborhood influences on young children's aggression, attention, and anxiety. Three waves of data were used for two groups of children, the first seen at 6 months, 3 years, and 5 years of age, and the second at 3, 5, and 7 years of age. The project addressed 5 primary questions:

(a) Are individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics associated with young children's emotional health?

(b) Do family processes mediate or moderate associations among individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics and young children's emotional health?

(c) What are the salient features of “micro” neighborhood contexts of young children? Do these and other neighborhood processes mediate or moderate associations among individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics and young children's emotional health?

(d) What is the distribution of self-regulation among preschool children drawn from a large, urban, and diverse sample interviewed in home-based settings? Does this distribution vary by child, family, and neighborhood characteristics?

(e) Does self-regulation mediate, at least in part, or moderate associations among individual, family, and neighborhood influences and preschool children's emotional health?

Funding Sources: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; National Institute of Justice; National Institute of Mental Health; NICHD; Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education; Child Care Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Contact: Margo Gardner, Ph.D., Gabriela Barajas


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