Neighbourhood effects on school achievement: the mediating effect of parenting and problematic behaviour?

Abstract

Neighbourhood research hitherto has suggested that the neighbourhood in which youth grow up affects their educational achievement. However, the mechanisms though which the neighbourhood reaches these effects are still unclear. Family and individual characteristics seem important in explaining educational outcomes. We therefore propose two related mediating factors: parenting strategies and problematic behaviour. We test this mediation using the 2009 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children data for the Netherlands (N = 2683), in which adolescents are surveyed about their behaviour and relationships and, additionally, their parents are interviewed about their child and their parenting. These data are combined with data from Statistics Netherlands, which include neighbourhood-level information about real-estate value and ethnic variation of the neighbourhood population. The results show that the effects of the proportion of immigrant groups and the mean property values in the neighbourhood are unlikely to be mediated by parenting behaviours and problematic behaviour. The results also show that parents are likely to adapt their parenting behaviours to demographic neighbourhood characteristics. For example, parents in neighbourhoods with higher ethnic heterogeneity apply more protective parenting strategies.