Maternal Fear for Sons and Daughters and Its Effect on Children's Outdoor Activity

• Other Authors: Godbolt, Dawn D. (Dawn Dionysia) (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Sociology
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2017SP_Godbolt_fsu_0071E_13842

This dissertation focuses on mothers' fears of allowing their children outside because of neighborhood violence. These worries occur across race and class categories, but they are especially prevalent for mothers living in high poverty areas and in neighborhoods with low levels of collective efficacy. Prior research shows that gang involvement, substance abuse, low academic achievement, high rates of school dropout, and violent behavior are all hazards associated with disadvantaged neighborhoods. As a result of these hazards mothers are often reluctant to allow their children outside. The study specifically addresses how neighborhood collective efficacy, neighborhood gang presence, mothers' personal characteristics, mothers' coping resources, and children's puberty characteristics affect the odds of maternal fear, with special attention paid to the effects of race and gender of the child. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, a longitudinal study that follows a birth cohort from 1998 to 2000, logistic regression is used to examine the factors that affect mothers' fears and whether these odds differ by race of the mother and gender of the child. Chapter 3 examines the associations between odds of maternal fear and neighborhood characteristics, personal characteristics, and coping mechanisms for the full sample of mothers and then for a sample of mothers of boys and a sample of mothers of girls. Results indicate that maternal fear (a dichotomous variable) is positively associated with living in neighborhoods with lower levels of collective efficacy and gang problems, having a son, being on TANF or welfare, and having a higher level of religious saliency. Results also indicate a negative association between the odds of maternal fear and education level, higher scores on the income-to-needs ratio, and grandfather co-residency. Looking at results by child's gender shows that black mothers of boys have lower odds of fear than other race mothers, although there is no race difference in the odds of fear among mothers of girls. It is possible that in my analysis black mothers of boys may demonstrate lower odds of being fearful than their white and Latina counterparts due to the lack of concrete measures of violence available in the dataset. For mothers of girls, neighborhood collective efficacy seems to mediate the effect of being black. Chapter 4 examines the associations between the odds of maternal fear and puberty characteristics for the full sample and the samples stratified by child's gender. Results indicate that fear is positively associated with having observed a growth spurts for mothers of both boys and girls. Results also indicate that black and Latina mothers of children who developed earlier than their peers have greater odds of being afraid. After stratifying the sample by child's gender, results indicate that black mothers of boys whose voices have deepened have lower odds of fear. They also reveal that black mothers of daughters who developed earlier than their peers have greater odds of fear than similar white or Latina mothers of daughters. I posit that the age of the children (which is nine years old) may explain these findings. It is possible that as the children mature, more associations between odds of fear and puberty may emerge as the risks associated with puberty come into play. This dissertation extends the literature on the predictors of maternal fear. The dissertation concludes by considering policy implications === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Spring Semester 2017. === February 1, 2017. === African-Americans, Black Mothers, Neighborhood disorder, Urban Poverty === Includes bibliographical references. === Irene Padavic, Professor Directing Dissertation; Maxine Jones, University Representative; Anne Barrett, Committee Member; Amy Burdette, Committee Member; Koji Ueno, Committee Member.