Links to Positive Parenting among African American and Hispanic American Low-Income Mothers

Laura D. Pittman

Psychology DepartmentNorthern Illinois University

Ethnicity and Parenting

Known link between parenting and child outcomes (Bornstein, 2002) For some parenting practices, ethnicity is a

significant moderator in this relationship Parenting also suggested as a mediator

between more distal factors and child outcomes

Few have considered ethnicity as a moderator in the links between the distal factors and parenting

Furthermore, studies often focus on within group differences or have comparisons to Caucasian families

Context of Parenting

Parents living in poverty are: More likely to use more punitive

parenting (McLoyd, 1990) And be less warm and supportive

(Magnuson & Duncan, 2002) Less likely to stimulate children

cognitively (Bradley et al, 2001) Unclear what factors within this

economic context influence parenting

Possible Distal Factors linked to Parenting

Psychological Distress/Health (e.g., McLoyd, 1990)

Financial Strain (e.g., Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 2000)

Neighborhood Problems (e.g., Furstenberg et al., 1999)

Collective Efficacy (Sampson, 1992)

Questions for this study

In this low-income sample, what factors are linked to positive parenting? Less parenting stress More cognitive stimulation Use of more family routines More authoritative parenting Less harsh parenting Less permissive parenting Less disengaged parenting

Are there differences by ethnicity in how these factors influence parenting?

Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study

2402 families completed interview (1999) Over 40,000 household screened for eligible families Children age 0-4 years or 10-14 years 74% overall response rate Boston, Chicago, San Antonio 490 African American & Hispanic American families with

2- to 4- year-old children kept in these analyses Procedure

2-hour interview of the maternal caregiver in family’s home using a computerized interview format

Obtained information on family background, mental health, economic condition, perceptions of the neighborhood and parenting

Mothers’ Parenting Measures

Parenting Practices - Raising Children Checklist (Shumow, et al., 1998) 20 items 4 Subscales derived: Authoritative, Harsh, Permissive &

Disengaged Parenting Cognitive Stimulation subscale from the HOME

(Caldwell & Bradley, 1984) Family Routines

6-items from Family Routines Inventory (Jensen et al., 1983)

Parenting Stress 7 items derived from similar measures in the New Hope

Study & Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)

Mothers’ Psychological Health

10-item Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1986)

Psychological Symptoms Brief Symptom Inventory–18 (Derogatis,

2000) Includes symptoms of anxiety, depression, &

somatization

Family Economic Factors

Income-to-needs ratio Comparison of annual household

income to poverty threshold for families of same size

Financial Strain Index (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 2000) 6 items asking about how difficult it is

to make ends meet in the household

Neighborhood measures

Neighborhood Problem Scale 11 items adapted from the Denver

Youth Study and Chicago Youth Achievement Study (Eliot et al., 1996)

Collective Efficacy 9 items based on the Sampson’s

Collective Efficacy Scale (Sampson et al 1997)

Background Characteristics (N = 490)

Mothers’ Age: 28.77 years (SD = 8.43) Children’s Age: 3.51 years (SD = 0.86)

42% African American; 58% Hispanic American

61% Single; 33% Married; 6% Cohabiting

Household Income-to-Needs Ratio = .81

Analysis Plan

(1)T-test comparisons between African-American and Hispanic Americans on all variables

(2)Linear Regressions predicting each of the parenting variables were run, first entering some demographics and then ethnicity

(3)To the models in #2, the distal factors were added simultaneously to see what independently contributed to the prediction of parenting

(4)Added interactions terms between ethnicity and each of the distal variables

T-tests

Hispanic Americans more likely to be married or cohabiting than African Americans

Hispanic Americans reported lower levels of self esteem

African Americans had higher levels of cognitive stimulation as well as more harsh parenting in their home compared to Hispanic Americans No differences in parenting remained after

controlling for child’s age and gender and mothers’ marital status

Main effects: Psychological Health

Self-esteem positively linked to family routines, cognitive stimulation, and authoritative parenting, while being negatively linked with parenting stress and disengaged parenting

More psychological symptoms only linked to greater parenting stress

Main effects: Economic & Neighborhood Factors

Economic factors Higher family income was linked to

more parenting stress Financial strain not linked to parenting

Neighborhood Greater neighborhood collective

efficacy linked to use of more family routines

More neighborhood problems linked to more parenting stress

Interaction between Maternal Self-esteem and Ethnicity predicting Authoritative Parenting

2.85

2.9

2.95

3

3.05

3.1

3.15

3.2

3.25

3.3

3.35

- 1 SD +1 SD

Mothers' Self esteem

Au

tho

rita

tive

Par

enti

ng

Latino African American

Interaction between Maternal Self-esteem and Ethnicity predicting Permissive Parenting

1.8

1.9

2

2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

- 1 SD +1 SD

Mothers' self-esteem

Per

mis

sive

Par

enti

ng

Latino African American

Interaction between Maternal Self-esteem and Ethnicity predicting Parenting Stress

2

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3

- 1 SD +1 SD

Mothers' Self esteem

Par

enti

ng

Str

ess

Latino African American

Interaction between Maternal Psychological Symptoms and Ethnicity

predicting Family Routines

2.45

2.5

2.55

2.6

2.65

2.7

2.75

2.8

2.85

2.9

2.95

3

- 1 SD +1 SD

Mothers' psychological symptoms

Fam

ily R

ou

tin

es

Latino African American

Interaction between Maternal Psychological Symptoms and Ethnicity

predicting Permissive Parenting

1.8

1.9

2

2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

- 1 SD +1 SD

Mothers' psychological symptoms

Per

mis

sive

Par

enti

ng

Latino African American

Interaction between Neighborhood Problems and Ethnicity predicting Harsh Parenting

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2

2.2

2.4

- 1 SD +1 SD

Neighborhood Problems

Har

sh P

aren

tin

g

Latino African American

Interaction between Neighborhood Collective Efficacy and Ethnicity

predicting Harsh Parenting

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

- 1 SD +1 SD

Neighborhood collective efficacy

Har

sh P

aren

tin

g

Latino African American

Interaction between Neighborhood Collective Efficacy and Ethnicity

predicting Cognitive Stimulation

80

82

84

86

88

90

92

94

- 1 SD +1 SD

Neighborhood collective efficacy

Co

gn

itiv

e S

tim

ula

tio

n

Latino African American

Interaction between Income-to-Needs Ratio and Ethnicity predicting Family Routines

2.5

2.6

2.7

2.8

2.9

3

3.1

- 1 SD +1 SD

Income-to-needs ratio

Fam

ily R

ou

tin

es

Latino African American

Summary Maternal self-esteem important, but

perhaps more true among African American

Maternal psychological symptoms less meaningful here.

Economic factors not significant in this homogenous sample

Neighborhood factors linked to parenting stress and family routines

Overall, interactions found significant effects for African American families, but not for Hispanic American families

Future directions

Limited by the cross-sectional nature of these analyses Onto longitudinal analyses

Consideration of other possible moderators in prediction of parenting Child gender Child temperament Marital status