Poverty, stress, and support: patterns of parenting behaviour among lower income black and lower income white mothers

Abstract The relation between parenting behaviour and poverty has been established, with impoverished parents' related experiences of stress and support typically implicated in the development of negative parenting behaviour. Additionally, differences in parenting behaviour have been identified for families with different ethnic backgrounds. However, whether ethnicity continues to effect similar differences in families' parenting behaviour in the face of the challenges associated with poverty or whether poverty leads to greater similarities or differences in parenting behaviour across ethnicity is not clear. Understanding how parenting behaviour is affected by the challenges of poverty is essential for identifying appropriate supportive programmes to enhance the development of children in these families. To better understand the parenting behaviours of lower income African American and European American mothers, this study identified levels of stress, family‐ and community‐based support, and qualitative and quantitative measures of parenting for 30 African American and 30 European American mothers with children between 3 and 5 years of age. Both groups of mothers reported high levels of stress and low levels of support in their role as parents. Few differences in either mothers' ratings of how they parented or their descriptions of their parenting behaviours were identified suggesting similar parenting styles between these two groups of low‐income parents. All mothers used less authoritarian parenting than expected based on poverty levels. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.