Total Environment Assessment Model for Early Child Development

Total Environment Assessment Model
for Early Child Development
Chapter 3:
The Residential Community
as a Sphere of Influence
Overview
Children and their families live in localities
or residential communities, though the
type of locality/community varies tremendously.
In rural settings, people generally
reside in village-based communities, while
in urban settings, the forms of clustering may
be more diverse, and includes neighbourhood
or slum communities. Nonetheless, however,
there are core features of all localities that
have been identified as being extremely
important for ecd.
The focus of this section is to identify
and discuss the key aspects of the residential
community, and where available, highlight
the associated evidence. Unfortunately,
most of the evidence in this regard has been
conducted in urban neighborhood contexts
in the resource-rich nations, particularly the
United States and the United Kingdom. The
research conducted in these nations does,
however, provide insights for resource-poor
nations, and suggests avenues for further
research in other contexts.
The pertinent features of a residential
community for children include the economic
environment, the physical environment, the
service environment, and the social environment
[103]. Inequalities in these residential
characteristics result in inequalities in health.
The economic environment of a locality
is critical for the well-being of children,
and is heavily linked with the other types
of environments. Economic well-being of a
locality can be characterized in several ways,
including the aggregate financial stability of
the families which reside in the locality (i.e.
the neighbours), and the financial resources of
the community in total (i.e. through government
sources such as property taxes), though
the most studied aspect is the former.
The socioeconomic well-being of a
residential community is most often defined
as the average or median family income level,
the percentage of residents with a high school
diploma, or the percentage of employed or
unemployed individuals in the community
[20]. Studies have found that high levels
of ses in a neighbourhood are associated
with better school readiness and school
achievement in younger children (including
intelligence quotients, verbal ability, and
reading recognition). In older children and
adolescents, higher levels of ses are associated
with fewer externalizing behaviors, less
peer reported aggression, less delinquent and
criminal behavior, and less peer rejection [20].
Socioeconomic aspects of neighborhoods
are thought to affect well-being through their
influence on the physical, service, and social
environments. There is a clear inverse association
between the ses of a community and the
extent to which its residents will be exposed
to toxic or otherwise hazardous exposures
such as wastes, air pollutants, poor water
quality, excessive noise, residential crowding,
poor housing quality, and the like [104].
The financial resources of neighbours also
bear directly on the extent of services that are
available in a residential community. These
include institutions and facilities for learning
and recreation, child care, medical facilities,
access to transportation, food markets, and
opportunities for employment [20].
Finally, the social environment of a
neighbourhood is also associated with its
degree of socioeconomic stability. The underpinning
for exploring the social environment
of neighborhoods comes largely from the
concept of ‘social capital’, which has been
explicated extensively by a host of sociologists
[105, 106, 107]. The essential premise of this
concept is that there are social properties of
entire communities or societies that deserve
distinct characterization, over and above the
phenomenon of describing an individual’s (or
family’s) social relationships [105].
This includes the extent to which adults
and children in communities are linked to
one another, whether there is reciprocated
exchange (of information, in-kind services,
and other forms of support), and whether
there is informal social control and mutual
support. This latter social feature of communities
is tied to the notion of ‘collective
efficacy’, which refers to a “shared belief of a
collectivity [108].” Collective efficacy empha-
Spheres of
Influence:
Residential
Community
41