Protective Family Factors in the Context of Neighborhood: Promoting Positive School Outcomes

• Published date: 01 January 2006
• Date: 01 January 2006
• Author: Andrew Grogan‐Kaylor,Michael E. Woolley
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2006.00359.x

Protective Family Factors in the Context of

Neighborhood: Promoting Positive

School Outcomes

Michael E. WoolleyAndrew Grogan-Kaylor*

Abstract: Three developmental contexts—school, neighborhood, and family—influence school outcomes. The focus

of the current investigation was on the promotive role of 4 family factors—family satisfaction, family support, fam-

ily integration, and home academic culture—on 3 school outcomes. These outcomes included student self-reported

sense of school coherence, avoidance of problem behavior, and academic performance. Utilizing a hierarchical linear

modeling strategy and a national probability sample, the family protective factors of interest displayed a significant

but differential pattern of impact on the 3 school outcomes studied. Findings related to neighborhood and school

factors, as well as race/ethnicity, are also reported and discussed. The implications of these findings with respect to

practice and policy are addressed.

Key Words: child development, family functioning, neighborhood effects, risk and protective factors, school outcomes.

School success is a central outcome of the com-

plex processes that influence child development.

Such processes occur within and among three key

environments: school, neighborhood, and family

(Richman, Bowen, & Woolley, 2004). For example,

various characteristics of the school environment

have been demonstrated to affect school behavior

and academic outcomes such as the relationships

between and among staff and students, school safety,

and school size (Freiberg, 1999). Likewise, neigh-

borhood factors such as crime and violence, peer

culture, poverty, and neighborhood satisfaction have

also been shown to have an impact on school out-

comes (Bowen, Bowen, & Ware, 2002).

Theoretical Framework and Study Aims

Guided by a contextualist worldview (Goldhaber,

2000), the current study conceptualizes physical and

social environments as playing key roles in develop-

mental outcomes. This conceptualization was in-

formed by the eco-interactional-developmental (EID)

perspective (Richman et al., 2004). Informedby both

the ecological systems theory and a developmental

orientation, the EID perspective suggests that there

are hierarchical environmental contexts that impact

developmental outcomes (Bronfenbrenner, 1986).

Microsystems are settings that directly influence

a child including both the physical environment

and his or her social relationships. Mesosystems are

the connections among these microsystems; ex-

amples would include the family culture with

respect to educational issues, or the relationships

between the family and neighborhood residents and

organizations.

This nested map of the environments that youth

inhabit is typically the central aspect of ecological

theory that is discussed. However, Bronfenbrenner

*Michael E. Woolley is an Assistant Professor in the Schools of Social Work and Education, University of Michigan, 1080 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI

48109-1106 (woolleym@umich.edu). Andrew Grogan-Kaylor is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work, University of Michigan.

Family Relations, 55 (January 2006), 93–104. Blackwell Publishing.

Copyright 2006 by the National Council on Family Relations.