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

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• Author: Margaret Lombe,Chrisann Newransky,Von Nebbitt,Takashi Amano,Mansoo Yu,Ngozi V. Enelamah,Yoosun Chu,Najjuwah Walden
• Date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12870

RESEARCH

Individual, familial, and sociocontextual correlates of

maternal caregiving among African American

adolescents in public housing

Margaret Lombe

1

|Chrisann Newransky

2

|Von Nebbitt

3

|

Takashi Amano

4

|Mansoo Yu

5

|Ngozi V. Enelamah

6

|

Yoosun Chu

7

|Najjuwah Walden

8

1

School of Social Work, Boston University,

Boston, MA

2

School of Social Work, Adelphi University,

Garden City, NY

3

The Grace Abbott School of Social Work,

University of Nebraska–Omaha, Omaha, NE

4

School of Arts and Sciences, Department of

Social Work, Rutgers University–Newark,

Newark, NJ

5

School of Social Work, Department of Public

Health, University of Missouri,

Columbia, MO

6

College of Health and Human Services,

Department of Social Work, University of

New Hampshire, Durham, NH

7

School of Social Work, Boston College,

Chestnut Hill, MA

8

The Brown School, Department of Public

Health Sciences, Washington University in

St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

Correspondence

Margaret Lombe, Boston University, 264 Bay

State Rd, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

Email: lombem@bu.edu

Funding information

Office of the Provost at Howard University;

The Silberman Foundation

Abstract

Objective: African American adolescents (N=372), rec-

ruited from public housing in three large U.S. cities, partic-

ipated in this study that explores individual, familial, and

sociocontextual correlates of maternal caregiving profiles,

based on supervision and encouragement.

Background: Maternal 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 chal-

lenges for African American adolescents. Evidence on the

experiences of African American adolescents living in pub-

lic 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 chal-

lenges among adolescents in public housing.

Method: Using 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).

Results: Adolescents living in households with high levels

of maternal encouragement and supervision reported a

high-quality relationship with their caregivers and less wit-

nessing of community violence. These adolescents were

also less likely to report victimization.

Conclusions: The study identified parenting strategies that

could potentially reduce risks of adverse exposures among

Received: 20 February 2020Revised: 24 January 2023Accepted: 28 January 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12870

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

2390 Family Relations. 2023;72:2390–2409.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

urban African American youth in public housing. Practi-

tioners and policymakers must consider programs to bolster

these strategies and further serve urban African American

adolescents in challenging environments.

KEYWORDS

adverse community influences, African American youth, maternal

caregivers, poverty, protective factors, public housing

INTRODUCTION

African American maternal caregivers play an important role in the welfare of their adoles-

centchildren(Klieweretal.,2012; Nebbitt et al., 2014). Notwithstanding, the degree to

which maternal caregivers influence the well-being of their offspring as they encounter mul-

tiple familial and sociial environmental challenges remains largely unexplored among Afri-

can American adolescents in low resource neighborhoods. The limited evidence in place

suggests that maternal caregivers help their adolescent children to navigate familial chal-

lenges and community risks (Nebbitt, et al., 2007; Parker & Benson, 2004). This protective

role may be especially critical in urban public housing neighborhoods that are often charac-

terized by illegal opportunity structures and high levels of crime, particularly violent crime

(Baptiste et al., 2007).

Understanding how different profiles of maternal caregiving based on supervision and

encouragement may be related to the safety and welfare of adolescents is relevant within the

context of public housing and has potential to reveal characteristics of maternal caregivers that

are important to the safety and welfare of adolescents. Moreover, understanding the relation-

ship between profiles of maternal caregiving based on supervision or encouragement and ado-

lescent safety and welfare may inform development and implementation of family-based

interventions with greater potential to improve the trajectories of African American youth

living in public housing.

Indeed, to rectify the limitations of current knowledge in this area of family science, this

study recruited African American youth (N=372) from public housing in three large

U.S. cities. The study first examined the age and gender differences among adolescents liv-

ing in various maternal caregiver households. Thereafter, we assessed the association

between levels of maternal caregiving, based on encouragement and supervision, and

(a) familial correlates (e.g., family conflict and quality of parent–child relationship), and

(b) sociocontextual correlates, including exposure to delinquent peers and peers’influences,

as well as self-reported adverse community exposures, such as witnessing community vio-

lence, victimization, and youth’s subjective appraisal of their community.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Maternal caregiving and adolescent demographic characteristics

Studies link parental support and encouragement to positive outcomes in adolescents (Barnow

et al., 2002; Mills et al., 2021). The influence of parental encouragement in high-risk environ-

ments, to our knowledge, remains largely unexplored by age and gender. Previous studies indi-

cate that parental knowledge of their child’s whereabouts is stronger for younger versus older

adolescents (McElhaney et al., 2009), suggesting that older youth may selectively disclose infor-

mation to their parents in line with appropriate adolescent development.

MATERNAL CAREGIVING PROFILES2391