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The Everyday Struggle: Social Capital, Youth Violence and Parenting Strategies for Urban, Low-Income Black Male Youth

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Abstract

Drawing on 3 years of longitudinal ethnographic participant observations and interviews with parents of early adolescent black males (ages 12–15) living in a high-risk inner-city neighborhood, this paper examines the practices and implications of black parenting strategies on the social and health outcomes of black male youth. Little is known about the relationship between social capital, parenting strategies, adolescent development and violence among urban, low-income black male youth. This paper addresses the following questions: (1) in what ways do low-income black parents mobilize, deploy and manage social capital to reduce adolescent risk behaviors associated with violence among black male youth living in high-risk neighborhoods? (2) Does the ability to generate social capital and interpersonal trust within and outside the family shape parenting strategies for black male youth? (3) What are the unique challenges parents encounter as they raise black male youth in distressed neighborhoods? I found that parents’ ability to generate and manage social capital, particularly within kinship and local community networks, significantly influences whether black youth male resist, desist or persist in engaging in adolescent risk behaviors associated with youth violence over the adolescent life course.

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  1. African-American Studies Department, University of Maryland, 1137 Taliaferro Hall, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Joseph B. Richardson Jr.

  2. Center for Substance Abuse Research, University of Maryland, 4321 Harwick Road, Suite 501, College Park, MD, 20740, USA

    Mischelle Van Brakle

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Richardson, J.B., Van Brakle, M. The Everyday Struggle: Social Capital, Youth Violence and Parenting Strategies for Urban, Low-Income Black Male Youth. Race Soc Probl 5, 262–280 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-013-9103-0

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