Do neighbourhoods influence how parents and children interact? Direct observations of parent–child interactions within a large Australian study

Neighbourhood-level factors can exert unique influence on children's development, independent of individual parent, child, and family factors. We investigated the contribution of neighbourhood socioeconomic status (using government-generated definitions) to directly-observed parent–child interactions among 596 Australian parents and their 7–8-year-old children. Parents’ sensitive responding and parent–child positive mutuality were rated according to the SCARP:7–8 Years (Short Coding of Attachment-Related Parenting). Adjusting for individual family characteristics, multilevel modelling revealed evidence of an association between neighbourhood socioeconomic status and sensitive responding (β=.10, p=.004) but not for parent–child positive mutuality (β=−.01, p=.90). Tailored, evidence-based parenting supports according to local community need are warranted.