Potential of neighbourhood in promoting children’s wellbeing:Perceptions of mothers

Sylvie Jutras

Colette DubuissonUniversité du Québec à Montréal

18th IAPS Conference: Vienna, July 2004

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Objective of the study

To describe how mothers from different family conditions perceive

positive and negative

contributions of their neighbourhood

to the psychological wellbeing of their children.

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Method

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Mothers of children between 8 and 13 years of age (n = 201)

From an inner-city neighbourhood 76

From an affluent neighbourhood 67

With a diabetic child 27

With a deaf child 31

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2 questions about the neighbourhood

In your neighbourhood, who or what can FOSTER your child's psychological wellbeing?

Who or what are they?

How do they help?

In your neighbourhood, who or what can HINDER your child's psychological wellbeing?

Who or what are they?

How are they an obstacle?

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Analysis of the interviews

The responses were transcribed verbatim into a

databasebroken down into distinct units

of informationcontent analysed using a

response coding gridcomputed for their relative

frequencies

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Results

Positive aspects of neighbourhoods for the

wellbeing of children

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Positive aspects of neighbourhoods

• Good community services

• Environmental amenities

• Conviviality

• Nice people

• Safety

• Social integration

• Children to play with

10

Good community services

• Schools are close.• The playground,

the swimming pool.• Three recreation

centres.• The library, the

arena, everything is available.

11

Environmental amenities

• The big trees around.• There is no noise.• It’s a nice

neighbourhood.• The greenness.• There is a lot of space

for the children to play.

12

Conviviality

• We know everybody around.

• We can have confidence in each other.

• Neighbours chat with each other.

13

Nice people

• Nice families live here.

• They are good neighbours.

• His friends are well-mannered.

• We have relatives on the block.

14

Safety

• There is no violence here.

• It’s a residential neighbourhood. I’m not worried about her encountering prostitutes.

• Traffic is not that bad.

15

Social integration

• She is accepted by everyone despite her deafness.

• Neighbours are nice with him, just like they are with the other kids.

• She is friends with a lot of people around.

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Children to play with

• There are plenty of kids of his age.

• Only families with children live around here.

• There are several children her age who she plays with.

Comparisons between mothers

of the four groups

Inner-city neighbourhood

Affluent neighbourhood

Diabetics

Deaf

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Percentage of mothers mentioning salient aspects in each group

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Children to play with

Social integration

Safety

Nice people

Conviviality

Environmental amenities

Good community services

Inner-city Affluent Diabetics Deaf

Comparisonsby age

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Percentage of mothers mentioning salient aspects by child’s age

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Children toplay with

Socialintegration

Safety

Nice people

Conviviality

Younger children (8-10) Older children (11-13)

Comparisons by gender

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Percentage of mothers mentioning salient aspects by child’s gender

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Children to play with

Social integration

Safety

Nice people

Conviviality

Environmental amenities

Good community services

% Girls % Boys

Negative aspects of neighbourhoods for the

wellbeing of children

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Negative aspects of neighbourhoods

• Threats

• Lack of conviviality

• Social and economic problems

• Unattractive environment

• No children to play with

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Threats

• There is too much traffic.

• Drug dealers hang around.

• There is a lot of crime in our neighbourhood.

• The kids get into fights.

26

Lack of conviviality

• Parents around here don’t take care of their children.

• The other kids tease him because of his cochlear implant.

• People around here are so negative.

27

Social and economic problems

• There are prostitutes, drug dealers on my street.

• Parents are violent with their children.

• The teenagers are rude, there are gangs.

• Almost everybody is on welfare.

28

Unattractive environment

• The houses aretoo close to each other.

• It’s dirty, the dust is bad because she is asthmatic.

• The streets, the sidewalks areworn-out.

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No children to play with

• She is alone, there are no friends around to play with.

• There are no deaf children in the neighbourhood.

• Kids around here are too old for her.

Comparisons between mothers

of the four groups

Inner-city neighbourhood

Affluent neighbourhood

Diabetics

Deaf

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Percentage of mothers mentioning salient aspects in each group

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

No children to play with

Unattractive environment

Social and economicproblems

Lack of conviviality

Threats

Inner-city Affluent Diabetics Deaf

Comparisonsby age

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Percentage of mothers mentioning salient aspects by child’s age

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Unattractive environment

Social and economicproblems

Lack of conviviality

Threats

Younger children (8-10) Older children (11-13)

Comparisons by gender

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Percentage of mothers mentioning salient aspects by child’s gender

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Poor community services

Unattractive environment

Social and economicproblems

Lack of conviviality

Threats

Girls Boys

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In a neighbourhood that sustains children’s wellbeing, there are

No social and economic problems

Children to play with

Social integrationSafety

Nice people

Conviviality

Environmental amenities

Good community services

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This may be harder to get for

Children living in an inner-city neighbourhood who face

Threats Social and economic

problems Unattractive environment

Deaf children who lack Community services Children to play with

Thank you for your attention!