# The Role of Neighborhood and Parenting in the Development of Effortful Control During Early Childhood

## TL;DR

This study explores how neighborhood quality and parenting affect children's self-regulation skills during early childhood.

## Contribution

The study identifies neighborhood quality as a predictor of children's effortful control and highlights the moderating role of parenting.

## Key findings

- Children showed steady improvements in effortful control from ages 4 to 6.
- Poorer neighborhood quality predicted lower effortful control at age 4 and slower growth.
- Hostile parenting moderated the relationship between neighborhood quality and effortful control.

## Abstract

Effortful control (EC) is a self-regulatory ability that is linked to many individual child outcomes and is influenced by ecological variables (e.g., family, parenting). The influence of neighborhood-level variables has not been thoroughly examined.

The present study examined poorer neighborhood quality as a predictor of EC development, and the moderating role of parenting in relation to poor neighborhood quality and EC development.

Latent growth curve modeling analyses were used to assess changes in EC across time in a community sample (N = 796) of 4 year-olds. Subsequent analyses were run to determine the impact of neighborhood quality and the moderating role of parenting in relation to EC development.

Analyses indicated that children experienced steady and significant improvements in EC across ages 4, 5, and 6. Independent of socioeconomic status, poorer neighborhood quality significantly predicted age 4 EC level and the growth in EC from ages 4 to 6. Hostile parenting emerged as a significant moderator of the relationship between poorer neighborhood quality and age 4 EC level.

This study underscores the importance of examining neighborhood context in relation to individual child outcomes.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10566-025-09868-2.