Family processes affecting the socioemotional functioning of children living in poor families and families experiencing economic decline are reviewed. Black children are of primary interest in the article because they experience disproportionate shares of the burden of poverty and economic loss and are at substantially higher risk than white children of experiencing attendant socioemotional problems. It is argued that (a) poverty and economic loss diminish the capacity for supportive, consistent, and involved parenting and render parents more vulnerable to the debilitating effects of negative life events, (b) a major mediator of the link between economic hardship and parenting behavior is psychological distress deriving from an excess of negative life events, undesirable chronic conditions, and the absence and disruption of marital bonds, (c) economic hardship adversely affects children's socioemotional functioning in part through its impact on the parent's behavior toward the child, and (d) father-child relations under conditions of economic hardship depend on the quality of relations between the mother and father. The extent to which psychological distress is a source of race differences in parenting behavior is considered. Finally, attention is given to the mechanisms by which parents' social networks reduce emotional strain, lessen the tendency toward punitive, coercive, and inconsistent parenting behavior, and, in turn, foster positive socioemotional development in economically deprived children.

The Impact of Economic Hardship on Black Families and Children: Psychological Distress, Parenting, and Socioemotional Development

A cumulative protection model is proposed to explain why chronic juvenile delinquency may be amenable to prevention and how early family support and education may help achieve this important societal goal. A comprehensive review of early risk factors for chronic delinquency is presented with special attention to interactive effects. Interventions combining comprehensive family support with early education may bring about long-term prevention through short-term protective effects on multiple risks. A review of the early intervention literature reveals that the family support component is associated with effects on family risks, while the early education component is associated with effects on child risks. Both components may be necessary for effects on multiple risks and later reductions in delinquency. Implications for social policy and improvement of Head Start are discussed.

Prevention as Cumulative Protection: Effects of Early Family Support and Education on Chronic Delinquency and Its Risks

This book presents a review and synthesis of current research that addresses the potential for various forms of early childhood intervene to improve outcomes for participating children and their families.

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Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise.

What motivates grandparents to their altruism? We review answers from evolutionary theory, sociology, and economics. Sometimes in direct conflict with each other, these accounts of grandparental investment exist side-by-side, with little or no theoretical integration. They all account for some of the data, and none account for all of it. We call for a more comprehensive theoretical framework of grandparental investment that addresses its proximate and ultimate causes, and its variability due to lineage, values, norms, institutions (e.g., inheritance laws), and social welfare regimes. This framework needs to take into account that the demographic shift to low fecundity and mortality in economically developed countries has profoundly altered basic parameters of grandparental investment. We then turn to the possible impact of grandparental acts of altruism, and examine whether benefits of grandparental care in industrialized societies may manifest in terms of less tangible dimensions, such as the grandchildren's cognitive and verbal ability, mental health, and well-being. Although grandparents in industrialized societies continue to invest substantial amounts of time and money in their grandchildren, we find a paucity of studies investigating the influence that this investment has on grandchildren in low-risk family contexts. Under circumstances of duress - for example, teenage pregnancy or maternal depression - there is converging evidence that grandparents can provide support that helps to safeguard their children and grandchildren against adverse risks. We conclude by discussing the role that grandparents could play in what has been referred to as Europe's demographic suicide.

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Grandparental investment: past, present, and future.

Disciplinary attitudes and practices of low-income black mothers were examined. Mothers were interviewed about their parenting attitudes and control practices, and their responses were coded in terms of the degree to which they took a parent- versus a child-oriented approach to discipline. Mothers in the sample varied widely in their attitudes toward physical punishment, and mothers who used power-assertive techniques were as likely to take the child's perspective and give input into the socialization process as those who did not. Factors associated with maternal disciplinary styles included: maternal education, father absence, maternal age, and self-reported religious beliefs. Findings are discussed in terms of the variability in disciplinary practices in this population, as well as the factors contributing to these individual differences.

Determinants of Disciplinary Practices in Low‐Income Black Mothers

Mother's social support, their instrumental use of extended family members and of professionals for help, and their sense of personal control were examined as predictors of parenting skill in 3 groups of low-income women. Separate regression models were generated for black adult mothers, white adult mothers, and black teen mothers, all of whom had at least 1 infant. Black teen and white adult mothers who sought help with child-rearing problems from extended family members were more skillful parents. Among white mothers, use of professionals for help with child-rearing problems and mothers' sense of internal control were also significant predictors. Black adult mothers' parenting skill was predicted only by locus of control. These prediction models suggest that in 2 of the groups, social ties to significant others were the linkages through which child-rearing information flowed to affect parenting behavior.

Social support, locus of control, and parenting in three low-income groups of mothers: black teenagers, black adults, and white adults.

A Factor Analytic Study of the HOME Scale for Infants.

Recent longitudinal studies of young children have provided significant insights into the effects of preschool programs on the individual's life course. Gray, Ramsey, and Klaus (1982) followed a group of low-income, Black children in Tennessee, who entered a preschool at three years, to age twenty. As in another similar report about a group of northern Black young children (Schweinhart and Weikart 1980), Gray and her associates reported the results of their educational experiment, called the Early Training Project, in a recent book.

From 3 to 20: The Early Training Project.

Age and parenting skill among black women in poverty

Evidence for the exchange of parenting information between low-income White mothers and fathers of infants was found. Mothers had more accurate expectations for normative development than fathers, but more accurate fathers had spouses who were also more accurate—even when education was controlled. Though few significant differences were evident in help-seeking behavior when infant problems were encountered, fathers turned to fewer helpers than mothers and were somewhat more likely to rely solely on their spouse. These data indicate that researchers must consider the exchange of information between spouses, particularly when studying the socialization of parenting among fathers at this stage in the life cycle of the family.

Joseph H. Stevens

Papers

Social support, locus of control, and parenting in three low-income groups of mothers: black teenagers, black adults, and white adults.

A Factor Analytic Study of the HOME Scale for Infants.

From 3 to 20: The Early Training Project.

Age and parenting skill among black women in poverty

Shared Knowledge about Infants among Fathers and Mothers