"A mother's gotta' do what she can": neighborhood influences on the parenting strategies of mothers raising preadolescent children in high-risk environments

This research examines the parenting strategies of low-income African American caregivers of preadolescents in high-risk, low resource neighborhoods that promote their positive youth development. Adopting a family resilience approach and utilizing multiple qualitative methods (interviews, photos, drawings, neighborhood observations) and demographic data, I argue that parenting strategies are responses to neighborhood social processes and economic characteristics outlined in collective socialization, collective efficacy, social control, epidemic, and neighborhood resource frameworks. I identified three strategies including protective measures, promotional values, and promotional behaviors that maternal caregivers used to facilitate positive preadolescent development in the face of multiple neighborhood barriers. The research findings add to theoretical discussions of the relationship between neighborhood context and parenting strategies, and suggest contextually-relevant intervention and prevention initiatives that improve the lives of inner-city families and children