Exploring Gender Moderation: The Impact of Neighborhood Factors on Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

Abstract

Limited previous studies investigated the influences of various types of neighborhood factors on adolescent behavior problems. Meanwhile, although previous theoretical frameworks suggested that gender played a significant role in terms of neighborhood impacts on adolescent behavioral problems, few studies investigated the gender differences in such neighborhood influences. Using the year 9 and year 15 data of the national dataset Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS, overly sampled participants from low-income families), this study examined how the neighborhood structural and process factors can affect adolescent behavioral problems (internalizing and externalizing symptoms) and whether gender worked as a significant moderator for such relationships in the U.S. Structural equation models and multigroup SEM were estimated (N = 3411). Findings suggested that residential instability was associated with increased levels of internalizing symptoms among adolescents at age 15, whereas neighborhood social cohesion was linked to reduced levels of externalizing symptoms throughout adolescence. Furthermore, the moderating effects of gender were found for the association between residential instability and internalizing symptoms. Implications of such findings are further discussed.