How Race and Family Socioeconomic Status Interact to Shape Parenting Practices

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic -Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Abstract

Racial/ethnic disparities in academic development emerge early and persist throughout childhood (Farkas & Beron, 2004). Evidence indicates that racial/ethnic disparities in learning opportunities in home and community settings contribute to skills gaps. Yet, extant studies of parenting practices are confounded by the comparison of socioeconomically-disadvantaged Black families to affluent White families. Moreover, recent work suggests that associations between family socioeconomic status (SES) and developmental contexts and outcomes differ by race/ethnicity due to stark differences in access to salutary resources and exposure to environmental stressors. The few studies that have investigated how race/ethnicity and SES interact to shape parenting have yielded mixed results (Ferguson, 2007; Chin & Phillips, 2004), and this extant research has not considered whether SES subcomponents differentially relate to parenting subdimensions (Hoff et al., 2002). Accordingly, this study examines how race/ethnicity intersects with maternal education level and family income to shape varied parenting practices.
This study uses the sample from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and its Child Supplement (NLSY-CS) (N ≈ 3300). The original sample of the NLSY consisted of 12,686 young adults. In 1986, the NLSY-CS began collecting information about the children born to NLSY females, including the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) inventory. We focused on eight birth cohorts of children captured at ages 0-1 (Wave 1), 2-3 (Wave 2), 4-5 (Wave 3), and 6-7 (Wave 4). Only native-born White, African American, or Hispanic mothers were included. Based on the HOME, five comprehensive composite measures of parenting (i.e., home-based cognitive stimulation, provision of learning materials, out-of-home enrichment opportunities, screen time exposure, physical home environment) were constructed by standardizing and/or averaging the items used across waves.
Using OLS regressions, we explored the additive and interactive effects of race/ethnicity and SES on parenting, adjusting for an extensive set of covariates. Results from the interactive analyses indicate that racial differences in parenting vary across family SES levels, with education and income operating differently. For instance, in Wave 2, income’s association with home-based cognitive stimulation was stronger for Black families than their White counterparts, whereas maternal education’s link to cognitive stimulation was weaker for Black families (See Figures 1 and 2). For Hispanic families, maternal education’s connection to physical environment was weaker than for White families in Wave 2 and Wave 4. Taken together, the results suggest that higher income narrowed racial differences in parenting and home environment while these gaps grew as maternal education increased. In contrast, when examining the provision of learning materials, associations between greater enrichment and both income and education were stronger for Black parents (See Figures 1 and 2).
Analyses unearthed complex differences in the parents’ provision of learning opportunities at the nexus of race and SES, which may reflect differences in the social contexts, and thus the constraints and preferences of SES-matched Black and White parents. Future analyses will investigate other parenting outcomes, such as disciplinary practices, and assess the explanatory role of other important SES (i.e., wealth) and contextual characteristics.

Authors

• Ji Hye Park, Boston College
  Presenting Author

• Daphne A. Henry, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author