Safe and sound? Exploring parents' perceptions of neighborhood safety at the nexus of race and socioeconomic status

Publication date: Available online 20 June 2019Source: Advances in Child Development and BehaviorAuthor(s): Daphne A. Henry, Portia Miller, Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, Alyssa K. ParrAbstractRacial and socioeconomic achievement gaps appear in early childhood, persist into adolescence, and undermine long-term well-being. Scholarship typically examines whether family socioeconomic inequality explains racial skills gaps; however, increasing research indicates that the academic returns to socioeconomic status (SES) differ for Black and White children and that the size of Black-White achievement gaps vary by SES, with the largest disparities evident among the highest-SES students. The processes underlying the development of within-SES racial gaps remain unclear, though growing evidence suggests that racial disparities in proximity to (dis)advantage shape family life in critical ways. In particular, Black-White differences in proximity to spatial (dis)advantage may have serious implications for young children's health and well-being. Yet, little research has directly explored how race and family economic status shape children's family and neighborhood contexts. This chapter presents a mixed-methods study that integrated semi-structured interview, neighborhood observation, and neighborhood crime data from a socioeconomically-diverse sample of Black and White families to explore how the interplay between race and family economic status shapes parents’ perceptions of neighborhood safety...

Source: Advances in Child Development and Behavior - June 20, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research