Neighborhood poverty and child abuse and neglect: The mediating role of social cohesion

Child maltreatment is a significant public health problem. For decades, scholars and practitioners alike have sought to better understand and address its underlying factors. Among those factors are neighborhood socioeconomic conditions, including poverty rates. Understanding the mechanisms through which these factors affect maltreatment rates, however, is underdeveloped. This article explores the relationship between neighborhood poverty and child abuse and neglect rates in a diverse set of neighborhoods in South Carolina. Using data collected from a survey administered to a random sample of caregivers with children under the age of 10 (n = 483), substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect, and Census block group data, this study investigates the possibility that neighborhood social cohesion (i.e., mutual trust and shared expectations among neighbors), mediates the relationship between neighborhood poverty and child abuse and neglect rates. Significant direct effects of poverty on rates of neglect and abuse were found. Multiple regression analyses were then conducted to assess the proposed mediation models. Social cohesion was found to mediate the association between neighborhood-level poverty and abuse rates but not neglect rates. The findings suggest that efforts to increase neighborhood social cohesion may be effective in reducing rates of child abuse.