Supportive Neighborhoods, Family Resilience and Flourishing in Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract

Flourishing is linked with health and well-being in childhood and adulthood. This study applied a promotive factors model to examine how neighborhood assets might benefit child and adolescent flourishing by promoting family resilience. Using data from the combined 2018 and 2019 National Survey of Children's Health, structural equation models tested direct and indirect relationships between neighborhood physical environment, neighborhood social cohesion, family resilience, and flourishing among 18,396 children and 24,817 adolescents. After controlling for multiple covariates that may influence flourishing, the models supported that higher levels of neighborhood social cohesion were directly associated with higher levels of flourishing adolescents, and indirectly by positive associations with family resilience for both children and adolescents. No indirect effects between neighborhood physical environments and flourishing were supported by the data for either children or adolescents. However, neighborhood physical environments were positively associated with adolescent flourishing. Understanding social environmental factors that strengthen and enhance child and adolescent flourishing are critical toward designing prevention, intervention, and policy efforts that can build on the existing strengths of families and their communities.

Keywords: adolescent flourishing; child flourishing; family resilience; neighborhood social cohesion; physical neighborhood environments.

Figure 1

Child structural model. All model coefficients are standardized. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01. Solid lines represent statistically significant relationships. Dashed lines represent non-statistically significant relationships.

Figure 2

Adolescent structural model. All model coefficients are standardized. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01. Solid lines represent statistically significant relationships. Dashed lines represent non-statistically significant relationships.