Health Disparities
Fragile Ties: How Social Fragmentation and Maternal Mental Health Shape Childhood Aggression Kesia Muthuthotatil* Kesia Muthuthotatil Jason Mulimba Were Sheila McDonald Roman Pabayo
Objective: Childhood aggression, a significant public health issue, is influenced by individual, familial, and structural factors. Neighborhood social fragmentation, characterized by weakened social bonds and disrupted community networks, may foster environments contributing to aggressive behaviors in children. This study investigates whether maternal depression mediates the relationship between social fragmentation and child aggression among new mothers in Calgary, Alberta.
Method: Data from the All Our Families cohort among mothers and their infants, collected three years postpartum (2012–2015), were linked to neighborhood socioeconomic data from the 2006 Canadian Census. Social fragmentation was quantified using the Congdon Social Fragmentation Index, which combines variables such as lone-parent households, renter tenure, and residential mobility to reflect community instability. Generalized structural equation modeling assessed both direct and mediated associations between social fragmentation, maternal depressive symptoms, and child aggression.
Results: Maternal depressive symptoms were significantly associated with higher child aggression levels (ß = 0.33; 95 CI: 0.21, 0.45). However, no associations between social fragmentation and maternal depression (ß = 0.095; 95 CI: -0.12, 0.31) and between social fragmentation and child aggression (ß = 0.027; 95 CI: -0.38, 0.43) were observed, suggesting social fragmentation does not directly impact these outcomes within this sample.
Conclusion: Maternal mental health emerged as a critical factor shaping early childhood behavior independent of neighborhood social fragmentation. Targeted interventions, such as peer support programs and mental health services for new mothers, could mitigate childhood aggression by addressing maternal depressive symptoms. Future studies should prioritize diverse populations and longitudinal designs to identify how neighborhood and family-level factors influence childhood development over time.
