Parenting Together: Understanding the Shared Context of Positive Parenting Among Low-Income Black Families (original) (raw)
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Early Education and Development, 2016
Research Findings-This within-group exploratory sequential mixed methods investigation sought to identify how ethnically diverse, urban-residing, low-income Black families conceptualize positive parenting. During the item development phase 119 primary caregivers from Head Start programs participated in focus groups and interviews. These qualitative data were content analyzed using a three-stage iterative process that resulted in the development of a final set of 72 items for a paper-and-pencil measure. In the measure validation phase of the study initial construct validity of the 72-item measure was assessed with an independent sample of 665 respondents. Common factor analyses revealed five dimensions of positive parenting on the Black Parenting Strengths in Context (BPSC) scale that related in expected ways with other parent selfreport measures. Practice and Policy-BPSC dimensions provide initial support for a more nuanced operationalization of positive parenting than currently exists in any single scale for use with this group, and hold promise for better honoring the culture-and context-specific parenting goals and practices that low-income, Black parents subjectively view as important for producing healthy developmental outcomes for their children. Keywords parenting; early childhood; Black families; measurement; Head Start Undeniably, parents (or primary caregivers) play the most powerful socialization role for children. Research documents the critical importance of parenting as it relates to children's
Journal of Black Psychology, 2005
This study examined maternal racial identity and its relations to maternal depression, maternal age, maternal parenting behavior, and 5-year-old children's social and cognitive outcomes. Participants included 62 African American mother-child dyads enrolled in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Mothers completed measures on their own racial identity and depression and on their children's social competence. Children were assessed on reading and mathematical readiness. Parent-child interactions were videotaped and coded for levels of maternal power assertion and warmth. After controlling for maternal education and program status, a series of multiple regressions were conducted. Results indicated that maternal preencounter attitudes were negatively related to maternal age and power assertion. Maternal immersion attitudes and children's cognitive achievement were negatively related. Maternal internalization attitudes were positively related to children's social competence. A trend suggested a positive relation between maternal preencounter attitudes and children's cognitive achievement. Maternal racial identity was not associated with maternal depression or maternal warmth.
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2002
This study examined the construct and concurrent validity of the Parenting Behavior Questionnaire-Head Start (PBQ-HS), a modification of the PBQ (Hart, Nelson, Robinson, Olsen, & McNeilly-Choque, 1998), with low-income African-American families with preschoolers. The study also investigated whether parenting styles differed by caregiver characteristics. The sample included 465 primary caregivers of urban Head Start children. Factor analyses yielded Active-Responsive, Active-Restrictive, and Passive-Permissive parenting dimensions. Concurrent validity data on Limit-Setting, Warmth, and Directiveness revealed similarities between the Active-Responsive and Active-Restrictive dimensions and Baumrind's authoritative and authoritarian dimensions, respectively. The Passive-Permissive dimension and Baumrind's permissive style differed. Low education levels and single parenthood were associated with Active-Restrictive and Passive-Permissive parenting. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Parenting, 2008
Objective. The primary purpose of this review is to highlight methodological challenges to the study of African American parenting. Over the past two decades, research on African American parenting has burgeoned, and attempts have been made to address the shortcomings of prior work in this area. Recent studies have shed new light on the heterogeneity of African American parenting and help to identify promising directions for future research. Design. In this paper, we overview research on African American parenting, with emphasis on studies conducted over the past two decades. We discuss challenges, strengths, and gaps in the areas of conceptualization, sampling, research approaches, measurement, and design. Results and Conclusions. Great strides have been made in the methodological rigor of studies on African American parenting which have yielded a more complex understanding of parenting practices and outcomes in this population. Future research should attend to variation in the nature and influences of parenting across different subgroups of the African American population. Additionally, researchers should increasingly rely on multiple methodologies (e.g., surveys, observations, qualitative interviews); ground the measurement of parenting in the experiences of African American populations; and examine patterns within a developmental context. These research directions promise to yield new findings on processes that are unique to African American families, as well as highlight those that are common to parents across racial and ethnic groups.
Numerous studies have found possibly consequential parenting differences between racial groups. Most of these studies, however, have relied on potentially biased coding schemes and have focused on individual parenting behaviors, which neglects the influence of collective parenting styles that may lessen negative impacts of individually deleterious behaviors. This study seeks to help rectify this problem through the use of a rigorous mixed method approach. It uses observational data from parent-child interactions among a diverse sample of low-income mothers. The coding scheme employed is a newly designed index explicitly constructed to avoid cultural biases. Further, the analyses utilize traditional regression models as well as Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to thoroughly investigate whether both the individual behaviors and more holistic parenting styles significantly differ by race. Findings reveal that while African American mothers do use higher overall levels of negativity and detachment, much of this difference stems from the increased use amongst male children. Further, any detrimental consequences stemming from this differential use of potentially negative parenting practices may be tempered as they are also often used in combination with higher levels of positivity and stimulation behaviors.
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2008
Few researchers have questioned the validity of traditional parenting dimensions (based largely on Baumrind's [Baumrind, D. (1967). Child care practices anteceding three patterns of preschool behavior. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 75, 43-88; Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology, 4, 1-103] work) with economically and ethnically diverse groups, despite the fact that evidence for the utility of these dimensions for predicting child and youth outcomes is equivocal. In this paper, we report on the findings from two independent studies by which we examined the relationship of traditional parenting constructs to children's social-emotional competencies among low-income, urban-residing African American preschool families with measures validated specifically for use with this population. In Study 1, 184 children and their families participated, whereas 210 children and their families participated in Study 2. Contrary to our hypotheses, across these two studies, findings failed to indicate significant relationships between constructs of parenting and children's social and emotional skills. Findings call into question the consequential validity of these constructs for this group and highlight inconsistencies among the larger body of parenting work. Implications for future theory-building and parenting research are discussed.
Black Parents of Preschoolers Educational Attainment: Implications for Parenting Practices
Nhsa Dialog, 2015
Within the Black community exists great variability in parenting practices; however very little research has examined the parenting heterogeneity within this group. Moreover studies of Black parents often contain samples with minimal variation in educational attainment. The purpose of this study was to identify the potential role of educational attainment in predicting parenting differences within the Black community. This study focused on home literacy promotion and parent involvement in school, two parenting practices often associated with children's academic achievement. The sample consisted of 103 Black parents with a wide range of educational attainment and preschool-aged children enrolled in urban child care centers. The results suggest that attainment of at least a Bachelor's degree is associated with a richer home literacy environment but the same pattern was not evident for parent involvement in school. Implications for parent engagement are discussed.
The Role of Education in the Parenting Practices of Black Parents of Preschoolers
2014
Few empirical studies have examined within group differences of Black parenitng practices. This study aimed to identify the role of educational attainment in predicting within group difference on two parenting practices associated with academic achievement: home literacy promotion and parent involvement in school. A sample of 103 Black parents with preschool-aged children was recruited from private urban child care centers. Parents who attained a Bachelor's degree or more had significantly higher home literacy promotion than those with some college experience or a high school diploma. There were no differences in home literacy promotion between parents with some college and those with a high school diploma. Teacher reports of parent involvement did not significantly differ as a function of parental education or income. Implications for practice with parents are discussed.
Substantial research has focused on the negative associations between coparenting conflict, parental psychological functioning, and parenting behavior in European American, middle-income, families. However, less attention has been given to ethnic minority families and to families that are nontraditionally structured. In an effort to address this gap, the current longitudinal study examines the relation between conflict with the mother-identified primary co-caregiver and parenting practices in single parent, economically disadvantaged African American families. Participants included 234 mother–child dyads. It was hypothesized that conflict would relate to less utilization of positive parenting practices and that this association would be mediated, at least in part, by maternal psychological distress. Hypotheses were examined using structural equation modeling (Lisrel 8.3): Conflict with a co-caregiver was significantly related to parenting both directly and indirectly through maternal psychological distress. Implications of the findings are discussed.