Project Summary/Abstract
Neighborhood structural characteristics and social processes have both been shown to directly impact
children’s social and emotional competence over and above the influences of more proximal contexts, such as
the family. However, much of the neighborhood literature has focused on structural characteristics of the
neighborhood, such as concentrated disadvantage and access to resources, despite evidence that structural
and social characteristics are interrelated and have unique impacts on children’s social outcomes.
Moreover, those few studies examining both structural characteristics and social processes of the
neighborhood, have themselves ignored critically important individual level characteristics, most notably
genetic risk and developmental timing. The current proposal will address these gaps in the literature, making
use of a disadvantaged twin sample to examine: (1) how neighborhood structural characteristics and social
processes moderate the etiology of children’s social and emotional competence, and (2) how these gene-
environment interactions (GxE) on social and emotional competence may change from middle childhood into
adolescence. To accomplish these aims, the current proposal will use advanced behavioral genetic twin
models, and in doing so, develop an integrated conceptual model of the ways in which individuals’ genetic and
developmental characteristics shape children’s social and emotional competence within the context of
neighborhoods. By identifying the mechanisms in which neighborhood impacts children’s social and emotional
development, these findings should inform prevention and intervention programs targeting aspects of
neighborhood context.
The proposed fellowship will provide additional training to: (1) gain expertise in neighborhood methodology, (2)
hone GxE statistical modeling skills, (3) develop an integrated conceptual theory of the ways in which
neighborhood context moderates children’s social and emotional development, (4) strengthen networking,
research dissemination, and grant writing skills, and (5) responsibly conduct neighborhood research. My
ultimate career goal is to conduct interdisciplinary research to understand how, and by what mechanism(s), the
contexts in which children are developing impact their social and emotional competence. My postdoctoral
research will move beyond the proximal contexts of families and schools that have characterized my previous
work, and focus on the multilevel context of the neighborhood. In this way, I will set the foundation for a career-
long research program investigating how nested contextual (family, school, and neighborhoods) influences
interact with an individual’s genotype to impact their social and emotional development.