2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

highly correlated with nativity. It should be emphasized that, because of these relationships, the results inthese tables do not imply causation. However, we present them here as suggestive of the kinds of factorsthat may impact parenting practices; complex interactions and relationships among the variables will beexplored later.As shown in Table 32, mothers who had not graduated from high school reported significantly lower ratesof all positive parenting activities, with the exception of taking children on errands, taking childrenoutside for a walk or to play, and praising children. Perhaps not surprisingly, since Hispanic and foreignmothers in the sample possess relatively lower levels of education, we found that these mothers reportedlower rates of many of the positive parenting activities in comparison to black and white/other and U.S.-born mothers.By the same token, we found evidence that being single or not living with a partner is associated with ahigher likelihood of some positive parenting practices; this result is most likely related to the fact thatHispanic and foreign-born mothers are more likely to be married than mothers from other groups.We found fewer associations between maternal characteristics and negative parenting practices. We didfind that mothers with less education were more likely to report losing their tempers with their children.This was also true of Hispanic (as well as white/other) mothers, foreign-born mothers, and those in arelationship, in comparison to black, U.S.-born, and single mothers, respectively. Similarly, we also foundthat Hispanic (as well as white/other) mothers were more likely to report getting angrier than intendedwith their children.Once more, we caution readers not to draw causal inferences about the relationships between parentingpractices and the sociodemographic characteristics presented here, because many of these characteristicsare related to one another. We provide more analysis of demographic characteristics and parentingpractices in relation to service use in a later section of this report. In addition,. a number of other factorsshape parenting practices, as suggested by data from the embedded qualitative study (Spielberger et al.,2009) reported previously. These include family’s beliefs about who should care for their children and thepriority of children’s needs over those of other family members, work and financial circumstances,neighborhood context (including safety), and future goals for their children.Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 52