Focusing on Family: Parent–Child Relationships and School Readiness among Economically Impoverished Black Children

Abstract

As a result of financial strain, low-income families often face challenges in areas of parental stress (McConnell, Breitkreuz, & Savage, 2011) and quality of parent-child interactions (Lempers & Clark-Lempers, 1997), which can be overwhelming for many parents and their children. Accordingly, low-income children's academic and behavioral performance has been linked to both parental stress and subsequent parent-child relationships (Clark-Lempers, Lempers, & Netusil, 1990). But while early academic parenting behaviors are critical in determining academic readiness for Black and low-income families (Hill, 2001), less is known about how family determinants such as parent-child relationship may help to explain link between financial stressors and children's school readiness. Furthermore, despite an earlier body of work, little progress has been made in past several decades to examine parent-child relationships in Black families generally, not to mention economically impoverished Black families.This study examines financial strain, general strain, parent-child relationships, and child school readiness (e.g., academic, psychosocial, and socioemotional indicators) among impoverished Black families. Although Black families may have varying degrees of control over societal factors associated with financial and daily hassles in their lives, less-understood aspects of home environment-in particular, relationship between parent and child-can shed light on ways that families can contribute to their children's readiness for school.ECONOMIC POVERTY AND BLACK CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENTThere is a large body of work that links socioeconomic status to child outcomes (e.g., Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). In particular, living in or with low levels of family income has been associated with a number of negative outcomes for children (Pinderhughes et al., 2001). The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions (from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poverty). In 2015, United States Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. DHHS) set threshold of for a family of two adults and two children at an annual income of less than $24,250 (Federal level: Definition, guidelines, chart, 2015). Low-income families, furthermore, are those who earn 100% to200% of threshold, or up to $48,500 for a family of four in 2015 (National Center for Children in Poverty; NCCP, 2012). Children comprise 44% of low-income and 34% of impoverished population in United States (U.S.) despite comprising only 25% of total population (NCCP, 2012). In particular, children six years of age and under may be especially vulnerable, with almost one-half living in low-income families and one-quarter living in impoverished families (NCCP, 2012: Although there are distinctions between terms and low-income within literature, NCCP illuminates vast underestimation of based on today's standards, therefore, term poverty in this article may include references to those who are 0-200% of federal threshold, that is, impoverished and low-income). The effects of are evident in early indicators of children's school readiness (e.g., preschool vocabulary; Duncan, Ludwig, & Magnuson, 2007), often leading to greater disparities in developmental outcomes and trajectories over time. The deleterious effects of on young children have been reflected in academic (Joe & Davis, 2009), psychosocial (Evans & English, 2002) and socioemotional (Bierman et al., 2010) outcomes.Furthermore, rates of American often vary with race. The percentage of Black families in has climbed as they experienced effects of recent economic downturn disproportionately (e.g., greater unemployment). Black children are also more likely to live in than their non-Black peers, with 39% of all Black children living in compared to 34% of Latino or 14% of Asian and White children respectively (U. …