Neighbourhood characteristics, lifestyle factors, and child development: Secondary analysis of the All our families cohort study

A L MacKinnon; H Sell; K Silang; E B Xie; J W Jung; S Tough; L Tomfohr-Madsen

doi:10.3389/fepid.2022.1073666

Neighbourhood characteristics, lifestyle factors, and child development: Secondary analysis of the All our families cohort study

Front Epidemiol. 2023 Jan 17:2:1073666. doi: 10.3389/fepid.2022.1073666. eCollection 2022.

Authors

A L MacKinnon^{1

2}, H Sell³, K Silang⁴, E B Xie⁴, J W Jung⁴, S Tough^{5

6}, L Tomfohr-Madsen⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Addictology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
² CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, Montréal, QC, Canada.
³ Immunization Programs and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Service, BC Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁵ Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁶ Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁷ Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Abstract

Background: Neighbourhood characteristics have been found to influence child development, but little is known about lifestyle factors that may moderate this relationship, which can provide modifiable targets for policies and programing. This study investigated the association between neighbourhood characteristics (e.g., deprivation, disorder) during pregnancy and child development at age 5 in relation to various lifestyle factors (e.g., physical activity, parent-child reading, community resource use) during early childhood.

Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted using multilevel modeling of data from the All Our Families cohort, recruited in Canada from 2008 to 2010. Participants self-reported on demographics during pregnancy, lifestyle factors at 3 years, and child development at 5 years using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3). Neighbourhood deprivation was evaluated using the Vancouver Area Deprivation Index (VANDIX), while disorder was measured using police services' community crime reports.

Results: Geocoded information was available for 2,444 participants. After adjusting for covariates, multilevel modeling indicated a significant negative association between neighbourhood deprivation and overall child development (b = -.726, 95% CI: -1.344, -.120). Parent-child reading was found to be a significant moderator of the effect of neighbourhood disorder (b = .005, 95% CI: .001, .009). There were no statistically significant moderation effects for physical activity or community resource use.

Conclusion: Neighbourhood deprivation during pregnancy is associated with early child development. Parent-child reading may function as a protective factor in the presence of higher neighbourhood disorder. Overall, neighbourhood-level effects should be considered in policies and community programs that promote family and child well-being.

Keywords: child development; community; lifestyle; neighbourhood; parents.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation, the Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program, and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship (756-2019-0679).