The Effect of Social Capital on Aggression and Delinquency in

Maltreated Adolescents

J. Kotch, M. Black, D. English, A. Litrownik, D. Runyan, R. Thompson, J. Smith, L-C. Lee, B. Margolis, & G. Taneja

International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and NeglectHonolulu, Hawaii

September 28, 2010

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Acknowledgements

Grants CA-90CA1401, 90CA1433, and 90CA1467 from the Administration for Children and Families

Grant 1 R01 HD039689 from the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

Special thanks to Terri Lewis & Ali Faiz for statistical support.

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Social Capital Defined

… features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit.(Putnam 1995)

“Social capital keeps bad things from happening to good kids.” (Putnam, 2000)

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Community vs. Family Social Capital (Coleman,1988; Ferguson, 2006)

Family social capital: relationships between parents & children (time, effort, resources & energy parents invest)

Community social capital: family interactions & relationships with surrounding community (both residents and institutions)• Social relationships • Civic engagement• Trust & safety• Religiosity

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Components of Community Social Capital and Child Well-being

Social Relationships Indicators of social capital were associated with positive

behavioral outcomes for at-risk preschool children. (Runyan et al., 1998a)

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Civic Engagement• More exchanges of resources & sharing of childcare occurred in

neighborhoods with higher levels of participation & activism. (Garbarino & Sherman, 1980; Sampson et al., 1999)

Trust and Safety• Mothers who felt safe were more likely to rate their neighborhoods

as more positive places to raise children. (Garbarino and Sherman, 1980)

• High social trust in neighborhoods can break the existing link between neighborhood impoverishment and delinquent activity. (Putnam, 2000)

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Limitations of Previous Studies

Cross-sectional Confounded/combined indicators of family and

community social capital Confused social capital and social support

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Purpose of the Present Study

To determine if informal social control and/or social cohesion & trust reduce aggression & delinquency in a longitudinal cohort of maltreated 12, 14, and 16 year olds

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LONGSCAN: Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (Runyan et al., 1998b)

A 20-year study of causes & consequences of child maltreatment

A consortium of 5 sites (EA, SO, MW, NW, SW) sharing data collection methods, instruments, data management & analysis

Face to face interviews at ages 4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, 18 Data sources for this study:

A-CASI interviews with child subjects and caregivers (ages 12, 14, & 16)

CPS records (birth through age 12)

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Preliminary Studies Runyan et al. (1998a) found family and community social capital

were associated with improved behavioral outcomes for at-risk children.

Saluja et al. (2003) did not find that social capital (neighborhood trust, engagement in child-rearing and helpfulness) moderated the association between maltreatment & child depression/anxiety or aggression.

Yonas et al. (2010) found collective efficacy (informal social control/neighborhood involvement) moderated the impact of neglect, but not abuse, on aggression at age 12.

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Measurement Controls

Time invariant - child gender, race, & site Time variant - caregiver education (ages 12, 14, 16)

Independent Variables Maltreatment reports - birth through age 12 re-coded using

MMCS (English et al., 2005) Caregiver depressive symptoms (Radloff 1997) - ages 12,

14, & 16 Moderator

Social capital (Knight et al., 2008) - ages 12, 14, 16 Dependent Variable

Child Behavior Checklist Externalizing Behavior (T-Score) - caregiver report based on aggression & delinquency subscales (Achenbach, 1991) - ages 12, 14, & 16 109/28/2010 ISPCAN 2010

Caregiver Depression in the LONGSCAN sample

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Maternal depressive symptoms predicted child maltreatment (Thompson, 2006) and child’s internalizing & externalizing problem scores. (Dubowitz et al., 2001)

Maternal depressive symptoms related to mothers perception of child’s emotional and behavioral functioning. (Black et al., 2002)

Caregiver depressive symptoms were among the adverse experiences that significantly increased the odds of health problems in maltreated 12 year olds. (Flaherty et al., 2009)

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Proposed Moderator: Social Capital Quality of Neighborhood, Residential Stability and

Organizational & Religious Affiliation (Knight et al., 2008) - has 37 items rated on a 4-point Likert scale (strongly disagree [1] to strongly agree [4]).

For the purpose of this study, 10 items corresponding with Collective Efficacy (Sampson et al., 1997) were used to create two subscales:

• Informal Social Control (5 items; alpha = .82)

Example: “How strongly do you agree that neighbors could be counted on to intervene if children were skipping school & hanging out on a street corner?”

• Social Cohesion and Trust (5 items; alpha = .83)

Example: “How strongly do you agree that people around here are willing to help their neighbors?”

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Analysis

Generalized estimating equations (GEE) a method of analyzing correlated data that otherwise

could be modeled as a generalized linear model (Zeger & Liang, 1986)

examined the effects of social capital & depression, and their interactions, on externalizing behaviors of maltreated and non-maltreated adolescents

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Descriptive Statistics by Maltreatment History (N = 1125)

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Time Invariant Variables*No Maltreatment Maltreatment

n % n %

Child’s Gender Male Female

160180

3031

383402

70 69

Child’s Race†

White African-American Other

55247 38

204017

224378183

80 60 83

Site†

East Midwest South Southwest Northwest

138 98 96 0 8

604850 0 4

93108100274210

40 52 51100 96

*Time Invariant variables are specific to baseline.† p<.001

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Descriptive Statistics by Maltreatment History (cont’d.)

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Time Variant Variables*

Age 12 Age 14 Age 16

No Maltx No Maltx No Maltx Maltx No Maltx Maltx

C’giver Education < High School > High School/GED

n (%)71 (30%)211(30%)

n (%)166 (70%)502 (70%)

n (%)66 (30%) 157 (70%)

n (%)229 (33%)476 (67%)

n (%)57 (30%)132 (70%)

n (%)177 (29%)444 (71%)

Please Note: Remainder of table presents means and (standard deviations).

C’giver Depression†

M # of Symptoms 10.8 (9.2) 11.6 (10.4) 10.7 (9.5) 11.9 (10.5) 10.8 (9.1)12.7

(10.6)

Collective Efficacy M Social Control M Social Coh./Trust

2.9 (0.6)2.8 (0.6)

3.0 (0.6)2.9 (0.6)

2.9 (0.5)2.8 (0.5)

2.9 (0.5)2.9 (0.5)

3.0 (0.5)3.0 (0.5)

2.9 (0.6)2.9 (0.5)

CBCL T-Score‡

M Ext. Behaviors 8.6 (7.3)13.4

(10.2) 8.4 (8.1)13.6

(10.7) 7.9 (8.3) 12.3 (11.0)*Time Variant variables are specific to age 12, 14, & 16 time points.† p<.01‡ p<.001

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GEE Model 1: Informal Social Control

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Caregiver Depressive Symptoms significant for maltreated subjects [b=.42 (.16), p =.01] but non-significant for non-maltreated subjects [b = .05 (.21), p = .78]

Informal Social Control was non-significant for maltreated subjects [b=.03 (.84), p =.96] & non-maltreated subjects [b = -1.16 (.82), p = .15]

Interaction between Informal Social Control and Depressive Symptoms was non-significant for both maltreated [b = -.05 (.05), p = .35] & non-maltreated subjects [b = .06 (.07), p = .34]

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GEE Model 2: Social Cohesion and Trust

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Caregiver Depressive Symptoms significant for maltreated subjects [b=.65 (.17), p =.00] but non-significant for non-maltreated subjects [b = .27 (.18), p = .13]

Social Cohesion and Trust was non-significant for maltreated subjects [p =.82] & non-maltreated subjects [p = .31]

Interaction between Social Cohesion and Trust and Depressive Symptoms was significant for maltreated subjects [b = -.13 (.05), p = .01] but non-significant for non-maltreated subjects [p = .89].

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SCT x DEP Interaction for Maltreated Subjects (p = .01)

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Low High 8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Low Social Cohesion/Trust

High Social Cohesion/Trust

CB

CL

Ext

ern

aliz

ing

Beh

avio

rs

Caregiver Depressive Symptoms

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Conclusions Neither Informal Social Control nor Social

Cohesion & Trust had significant main effects on adolescent aggression & delinquency at ages 12, 14, and 16 among children maltreated before age 12.

For subjects maltreated before age 12, high Social Cohesion and Trust significantly reduced the impact of caregiver depressive symptoms on aggression & delinquency at ages 12, 14, & 16.

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Limitations and Future Directions Limitations

Represents families involved, or at risk of being involved, with the child welfare system

Did not analyze maltreatment sub-types Did not assess adolescents perceptions of collective efficacy Did not assess adolescent self-reported delinquency and

aggression Future Directions

Examine the effects of collective efficacy by type of maltreatment, as well as self reports of maltreatment

Examine other behavioral outcomes, such as substance abuse, criminal justice involvement and violence

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ReferencesAchenbach TM (1991). Manual for the Youth Self-Report and 1991 Profile. Burlington, VT:

University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry.

Black MM, Papas MA, Hussey JM, Dubowitz H, Kotch JB, Starr, RH. Behavior problems among preschool children born to adolescent mothers: effects of maternal depression and perceptions of partner relationships. J Clinical Child Adolesc Psychol 2002;31(1):16-26.

Coleman J (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. In: Dasgupta P, Serageldin I, eds. Social capital: A Multifaceted Perspective. Washington, DC: World Bank; pp. 13–39.

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English D, Bangdiwala K, Runyan D. The dimensions of maltreatment: Introduction. Child Abuse & Neglect 2005;29(5):441-460.

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Flaherty EG, Thompson R, Litrownik AJ, Zolotor AJ, Dubowitz H, Runyan DK, English DJ, Everson MD. (2009). Adverse childhood exposures and reported child health at age 12. Academic Pediatrics 2009; 9(3):150-156.

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References (cont’d.)Garbarino J, Sherman D. High-risk neighborhoods and high-risk families: The human

ecology of child maltreatment. Child Development 1980;51:188–198.Knight ED, Smith JS, Martin L, Lewis T, & the LONGSCAN Investigators (2008). Measures

for assessment of functioning and outcomes in longitudinal research on child abuse, volume 3: Early adolescence (ages 12-14). Retrieved from the LONGSCAN web site http://www.iprc.unc.edu/longscan

Putnam RD. Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital. Journal of Democracy 1995(Jan);6(1): 65-78.

Putnam RD (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Radloff LF. Sex differences in depression: The effects of occupation and marital status. Sex Roles 1997;1:249–265.

Runyan DK, Hunter WM, Socolar RS, Amaya-Jackson L, English D, Landsverk J, Dubowitz H, Browne DH, Bangdiwala SI, Mathew RM. Children who prosper in unfavorable environments: The relationship to social capital. Pediatrics 1998a;101(1): 12–18.

Runyan DK, Curtis P, Hunter W, Black MM, Kotch JB, Bangdiwala S. LONGSCAN: A consortium for longitudinal studies of maltreatment and the life course of children. Aggression & Violent Behavior: A Review Journal 1998b;3:275-285.

Saluja G, Kotch J, Lee L-C. Effects of child abuse and neglect: Does social capital really matter? Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 2003;15:681-686.

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References cont’d.

Sampson RJ, Morenoff JD, Earls F. Beyond social capital: Spatial dynamics of collective efficacy for children. American Sociological Review 1999;64:633–660.

Sampson RJ, Raudenbush SW, Earls F. Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy. Science 1997;277:918-924.

Thompson R. Exploring the link between maternal history of childhood victimization and child risk of maltreatment. J Trauma Practice 2006;5(2):57-72.

Yonas MA, Lewis T, Hussey JM, Thompson R, Newton R, English D, Dubowitz H. Perceptions of neighborhood collective efficacy moderate the impact of maltreatment on aggression. Child Maltreatment 2010;15(1):37-47.

Zeger SL, Liang, K-Y. Longitudinal data analysis for discrete and continuous outcomes. Biometrics 1986;42:121-130.

Visit www.iprc.unc.edu/longscan/ for more information about LONGSCAN

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