Citation

Zuravin SJ. J. Fam. Violence 1986; 1(4): 307-322.

Affiliation

School of Social Work and Community Planning, University of Maryland at Baltimore, 525 West Redwood Street, 21201 Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00978275

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study assessed the relationship between residential density and two types of child maltreatment, abuse and neglect, by using aggregate data to test two models of density effects: (a) density as an intervening variable, and (b) density as a spurious relation. To test the models, child abuse and child neglect reporting rates for 202 Baltimore, Maryland census tracts were regressed on census tract population characteristics measuring class, ethnicity, and residential density. Results are inconclusive for density measured as percent of households with 1.01 or more persons/room because of a high degree of collinearity between density and structural variables. Results for density measured as 1.51 or more persons/room support the density as an intervening variable model. Considering that Baltimore, Maryland''s household crowding rate is very close to that of the rather low U.S. average, findings suggest that despite improvements in residential density over the last 30 years, crowding still negatively impacts on some families.