Poverty and Parenting: Exploring Ecological Interactions

Abstract

Decades of research have demonstrated that parents and children living in poverty are at higher risk for adversities, including intimate partner violence (IPV), material hardship, and exposure to community violence. There is, in turn, research linking IPV, material hardship, and community violence exposure to negative outcomes in children. One mechanism that may link poverty-related adversities to child outcomes is parenting. Thus, there is a need for a deeper understanding of how contextual factors associated with poverty influence parenting, particularly in vulnerable communities. In addition, it is important to identify how parenting may protect children living in poverty from later maladaptive outcomes. In the current dissertation, I explore how contextual adversities (namely, intimate partner violence and material hardship) influence parenting in low-income largely African American and Latino families. I also examine how parenting may serve as a protective factor for low-income Latino and African American adolescents exposed to community violence. I found associations between IPV and parenting, and limited evidence of a link between material hardship and parenting. In addition, I found an association between community violence exposure and adolescent attitudes about violence, though it appears that parent-child cohesion had a sensitizing effect. These findings are strengthened through the use of multiple approaches and methods, including structural equation modeling, constructs with multiple informants, and qualitative analyses. Taken together, these highlight the need for broad structural-level change aimed at improving the lives of families living in poverty and reducing racial disparities in health and wealth.