TY - JOUR
T1 - Social support for African American low-income parents
T2 - The influence of preadolescents' risk behavior and support role on parental monitoring and child outcomes
AU - Miller, Scott
AU - McKay, Mary M.
AU - Baptiste, Donna
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH 63662) and the W.T. Grant Foundation is gratefully recognized.
PY - 2007/5/22
Y1 - 2007/5/22
N2 - Urban parents, particularly single mothers living within inner-city communities, often struggle to obtain sufficient social support for themselves and for parenting. Support for these parents is particularly important given the prevalence of risk-taking behaviors among youth in these communities, which necessitates vigilant monitoring of these youth. The current study explored from whom low-income mothers obtain social support, the influence of child externalizing on source of social support, and how social support and child behavior interrelate with parental monitoring and supervision. Contrary to expectations, parental monitoring at time 1 did not predict child externalizing at time 2, but, as expected, a significant negative association was noted at time 1 between these constructs. Higher time 1 child externalizing did predict lower time 2 maternal monitoring, suggesting frustrated efforts by mothers to monitor high externalizing children. Mothers reporting strong support networks, however, showed higher levels of monitoring, and mothers who turned to children for social support also showed a tendency to monitor more closely. Although mothers of high externalizing children reported poor support quality, mothers did not discriminate between high and low externalizing children when choosing source of social support. These findings suggest the importance of monitoring prior to child initiation into risk-taking behavior, and the possible role of children in strengthening support networks.
AB - Urban parents, particularly single mothers living within inner-city communities, often struggle to obtain sufficient social support for themselves and for parenting. Support for these parents is particularly important given the prevalence of risk-taking behaviors among youth in these communities, which necessitates vigilant monitoring of these youth. The current study explored from whom low-income mothers obtain social support, the influence of child externalizing on source of social support, and how social support and child behavior interrelate with parental monitoring and supervision. Contrary to expectations, parental monitoring at time 1 did not predict child externalizing at time 2, but, as expected, a significant negative association was noted at time 1 between these constructs. Higher time 1 child externalizing did predict lower time 2 maternal monitoring, suggesting frustrated efforts by mothers to monitor high externalizing children. Mothers reporting strong support networks, however, showed higher levels of monitoring, and mothers who turned to children for social support also showed a tendency to monitor more closely. Although mothers of high externalizing children reported poor support quality, mothers did not discriminate between high and low externalizing children when choosing source of social support. These findings suggest the importance of monitoring prior to child initiation into risk-taking behavior, and the possible role of children in strengthening support networks.
KW - Child externalizing
KW - Monitoring prior to initiation of risk-taking behavior
KW - Parental support
KW - Single urban mothers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34249714734&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1300/J200v05n01_06
DO - 10.1300/J200v05n01_06
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34249714734
SN - 1533-2985
VL - 5
SP - 121
EP - 145
JO - Social Work in Mental Health
JF - Social Work in Mental Health
IS - 1-2
ER -