The neighborhood a child grows up in significantly impacts their behavior and development. Research shows that 6-7% of children in urban Western neighborhoods exhibit problem behaviors like disobedience, destruction of property, fighting, and stealing, with the frequency of criminal behavior increasing with age. Most children showing these issues as young kids continue struggling into their teen years, especially those aged 7 to 12. Future problems like violence, delinquency, and substance abuse may also arise. Some housing programs aim to help families access better neighborhoods to reduce these rates by providing areas with less negative influences on children.

1. Link Between Neighborhood and
Child’s Problem Behavior
By: Jared Maites

2. Link Between Neighborhood and Child’s Problem
Behavior
Certified by the Serve Safe Food Handler, Jared Maites is a former manufacturing director at
CAVA. Jared Maites serves as a real estate agent at Compass, a tech-focused and agent-driven
real estate brokerage firm that helps families find homes.

3. Link Between Neighborhood and Child’s Problem
Behavior
The neighborhood, which is the immediate geographical area of a family’s home, has a significant
impact on a child’s behavior and development. Externalizing behavior such as disobedience,
property destruction, fighting, and stealing effects about 6 to 7 percent of children residing in
industrialized western neighborhoods, with a frequency of crime increasing with age. Most children
that developed these behavioral disorders in their early or middle childhood continued with the
behavior to adolescence with children within ages 7 and 12 being the most significantly affected.
Violence, delinquency, and substance abuse are some examples of future problems that may arise
in the later lives of the affected children.

4. Link Between Neighborhood and Child’s Problem
Behavior
Some factors, such as costs of getting a house in a quality neighborhood, and proximity of the
neighborhood to parents’ jobs, have driven many parents to raise their kids in an unsuitable
neighborhood. Currently, some housing programs are contributing to the mitigation of externalizing
behavior rates in children by helping families provide neighborhoods with less problem behavior
influence on children. Future research will be required to confirm the effectiveness of these
programs.

5. Link Between Neighborhood and Child’s Problem
Behavior
The low crime rate, great schools, and access to medical care are some features of a quality
neighborhood.