Maternal caregiver's typologies and internalized behaviors in African American adolescents living in urban public housing.

Abstract

This study explores how variations in maternal caregiver types may be associated with adolescents' internalized behaviors (i.e., depressive symptoms) and resources (i.e., attitudes toward delinquent behaviors and efficacious beliefs). Using a sample of 375 African American youth from public housing in three large US cities, we used Latent Profile Analysis to identify various maternal caregiver classes. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess whether youth can be correctly classified into maternal caregiver classes based on their internalized behaviors. Three maternal caregiver classes were identified. Results suggest youth living with high encouragement and high (supervision) maternal caregivers were associated with more conventional attitudes, higher self-efficacy, and lower depressive symptoms. Findings highlight how maternal caregivers can influence the internalizing behaviors of African American youth in US public housing. Individual, community, and system-level interventions can be leveraged to support the impact of these maternal caregivers.