Exploring correlates of parental fear of crime: parents’ perceptions of their children, their neighbourhoods, and their use of social media

Abstract

The aims of the MPhil project were first to investigate the main effects of and possible interactions between age and gender (of both parents and children) on fear of crime for their child and second to explore the parents’ perceptions of neighbourhoods, perceptions of the child and social media use to account for parents’ fear of crime for the child. Responses to an online survey from 447 parent participants were analysed. The results of a 2x2x2 MANOVA showed significant differences in overall parental fear of crime based on the age of the child V = .875, F(7, 438) = 4.770, p < .001, ηp2= .052 and the gender of the child V = .084, F(7, 438) = 8.001, p = .001, ηp2 = .084. There was no statistically significant main effect of parent’s gender or any significant interactions. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that parents’ perception of their neighbourhood was a statistically significant predictor, β = -.34, p<.001, after controlling for gender and age of parent and child. However, their perception of the child did not have a significant impact on parental fear of crime levels, nor did their use of social media. Further research is needed to understand why perceptions of the child and social media use did not have a more significant effect on parental fear of crime.