The ties that bind: Questions for studying families in neighborhood contexts

Abstract

Scholars agree that understanding of family is incomplete without attention to context. Research and theory establish that neighborhoods are a proximal context for family life. However, research on the connections between neighborhoods and family processes remains limited in several ways. The overarching goal of this paper is to advance on existing knowledge of neighborhoods and families to elucidate key issues for future research. This paper begins with a brief review of existing theory and research on the connections between neighborhoods and families. Building on prior work, this paper then introduces a set of conceptually and methodologically driven questions that address limitations in: (1) how neighborhood qualities, as they relate to family wellbeing, are currently defined and measured, (2) how neighborhood effects are transmitted and if there are mutual influences between neighborhood and family processes, and (3) how transmission between neighborhoods and families varies according to sociocultural characteristics. These questions outline initial steps in clarifying and synthesizing previous conceptualizations and empirical study of neighborhoods and family dynamics. In addition, these ideas bring attention to understudied factors in research on neighborhoods and families and offer suggestions for future investigations.