The effect of father's absence, parental adverse events, and neighborhood disadvantage on children’s aggression and delinquency: A multi-analytic approach
Year: 2018
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: We applied multiple statistical approaches to address the covarying nature of neighborhood, household context, and children’s behavioral problems. The focal relationship under investigation was the effect of father's presence on child’s aggression. We take advantage of hybrid models to examine within-group fixed effects of time-varying variables, while paying attention to household stable characteristics. Findings demonstrate that the level of child's aggression was influenced more by household and neighborhood-level stable characteristics. Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood had direct and indirect effects on child 's aggression, controlling for other variables. Fixed effects model showed no significant relationship between having a father in the household and child's aggression. However, hybrid models with between- and within-group differences in father's absence indicated that the between-individual difference was significantly associated with child's aggression. The findings suggest that contextual forces that precede the relationship between father's absence and child's aggression might determine who may be likely to live in households with characteristics that affect both father's absence and child's aggression. When there are systematic selection biases, statistical methods suited for determining causal inference, such as fixed effects models, cannot fully tease out larger contextual and systemic forces that sort individuals into certain types of households and neighborhoods.
Authors: Sage Kim, Anne Elizabeth Glassgow
Institution: University of Illinois Chicago
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse
OpenAlex ID: W2791176129