Individual, familial, and sociocontextual correlates of maternal caregiving among African American adolescents in public housing

Abstract

AbstractObjectiveAfrican American adolescents (N = 372), recruited from public housing in three large U.S. cities, participated in this study that explores individual, familial, and sociocontextual correlates of maternal caregiving profiles, based on supervision and encouragement.BackgroundMaternal caregivers play an important role in ensuring the safety and welfare of adolescents as they encounter multiple challenges in their social environment. Public housing magnifies the risk of experiencing such challenges for African American adolescents. Evidence on the experiences of African American adolescents living in public housing is scarce. Our study contributes to this body of knowledge by exploring profiles of maternal caregivers, based on supervision and encouragement, their association with demographics, and familial and sociocontextual challenges among adolescents in public housing.MethodUsing multinomial logistic regression, we explore the associations between profiles of maternal caregiving, based on supervision and encouragement and adolescent characteristics, adolescents' experiences, and assessment of their family (e.g., quality of parent–child relationship, family conflict) and sociocontextual (e.g., peer influence, victimization, witnessing of community violence).ResultsAdolescents living in households with high levels of maternal encouragement and supervision reported a high‐quality relationship with their caregivers and less witnessing of community violence. These adolescents were also less likely to report victimization.ConclusionsThe study identified parenting strategies that could potentially reduce risks of adverse exposures among urban African American youth in public housing. Practitioners and policymakers must consider programs to bolster these strategies and further serve urban African American adolescents in challenging environments.