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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

"Racial and Gender Differences
in the Impact of
Parenting on Health and Well-being"

presented by
Melissa L. Riba

has been accepted towards fulﬁllment
of the requirements for

Master of Arts _ Sociology
degree in

 

 

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RACIAL AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE MACT
OF PARENTING ON HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

by

Melissa L. Riba

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Sociology

1995

ABSTRACT

RACIAL AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE IMPACT
OF PARENTING ON HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

by

Melissa L. Riba

In this work, it is argued that the conditions which characterize unequal race and
gender relations in our society create fundamentally differing experiences of family,
thus impacting differently the health and well-being of men, women, blacks, and
whites. A series of regression equations were performed to test this assertion using
various measures designed to tap respondents perceptions of the quality of their
parenting and childcare experiences, both for themselves, as well as for others, and
assess how well these predict health and well-being. This was done both for the
aggregate group and for the following four sub-groups: black women, white women,
black men, and white men. Findings reveal that there are differences in the health
and well-being by race-gender groups as mediated by experiences of parenting and
childcare. These ﬁndings have important implications for future research because of
past inattention to the differential impact of parenting by women and men, as well as

blacks and whites.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In creating any work, in addition to the author, there are a number of people
who contribute to the ﬁnished product. This work is no exception.

First, I must thank my advisor, Dr. Cliff Broman, without whose support and
guidance this work would have quickly become an impossibility. I would also like to
thank all the members of my committee, Dr. Maxine Baca Zinn, Dr. Janet
Bokemeier, and Dr. Rita Gallin, who helped immeasurably as well. Thanks to all of
you for helping me to believe in my self and my scholarship.

Next, I must acknowledge the immense contributions from all of my
colleagues/friends, in particular JL, HW,TK, BH, CW, and IU, for all of their
intellectual and emotional suppbrt. Thanks to BPK for all his love and support.

Finally, and most importantly, this work acknowledges and is dedicated to all
the women in my family tree, who have made me who I am. Through their
examples, I have learned how to strive, survive and succeed in a world that is not
always accommodating to our dreams. It is to all these women, past and present, that

this work is lovingly dedicated.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables
Introduction

Previous Research
Gender and health and well-being
Race, health and well-being
Parenthood and psychological well-being
Parenthood and physical health
Race, parenthood and health and well-being
Intergenerational emotional support

Methods
Data
Variables
Analysis
Findings
Discussion

Conclusion

References

iv

Page

HHOQMUJUJ

H0

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15
18
18
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34

36

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: "Regression of self-rated health and psychological
well-being on soda-demographics "

Table 2: ”Regression of self-rated health and psychological
well-being on all predictors"

Table 3: "Regression of self-rated health on predictors
and controls"

Table 4: "Regression of psychological well-being on
predictors and controls"

Table 5a: "Regression of self—rated health on predictors
by race-sex groups "

Table 5b: "Regression of self-rated health on predictors
by race-sex group"

Table 6a: "Regression of psychological well-being on
predictors by race-sex group"

Table 6b: "Regression of Psychological well-being on
predictors by race-sex group"

Page

19

21

23

24

26

27

28

29

INTRODUCTION

Asking the question "Why are we different?" elicits many responses depending
uponwhomyouaslc Forthesociclogist, ananswercanbeformdinjustonephrase—
smmnedhtequaﬁty.sunplypm,mismemsﬂtatwememmgedh1ahiaardﬁal
manna along lines of difference—generally delineated by race, class and gender-
which translates into material rewards or deprivation. Diversity results as different
groupsadapttodreirsocial loeationandtheallocationofsocietalresomce
accordingly. Recently, scholars (Andersen & Collins 1992) have stressed the
importance of examining the multiple realities of class, race, and gender. Race, class,
andgenderexerttremendouspressm'esonthesocial landscape, dovetailinginvarious
settings. Like geological plates coming together, fault lines erupt and the workings of
these pressures become visible. We are able to glimpse the otherwise imperceptible
workings of race, class, and gender constructions, thus gaining more complete and
accurate understandings of our society.

Oneofthesemanyfaultlinescanemptwidtindtecontextoffamilies. Itisin
diefmnilywhaeﬂtenexusofsmictmalphenomenaconva'geandhrmacton
individual members’ life chances. This interfacing of family and society produces
nnnyommmﬂtenanneofwhichoﬁendepmdsuponwhaeﬂieindividmlsﬂtat
comprise a given family are placed in our social hierarchy. Families mediate the
impactofthesmtcturalonthepersonal, bmdosodiﬂeremlyacrossracial ethnic, and
class goups and even within families by gender.

Thisemphasisondiﬂ’erenceisakeycomponentofthepresentstudy. Ithas

2
been well-documented that racial and gender oppressions have real consequences for

the oppressed in health and well-being The impact of family life on the health and
well-being of individuals is equally well researched, yet while much research has
doanmnedgaﬂadiﬂemcesmmismmehnpaaofmcehasbemlm'gely
neglected. Inﬂlispaper,larnarguingthatconditimsthatdimactaizemequalrace
andgenderrelations inthis societycreateftmdamentally different experiences of
family, thus, having a diﬂ‘erent impact on health and well-being for diﬂ‘amt groups.
For example, black women's experiences of family are different from white women's
because of the "double bind" of race and gender stratiﬁeation that black women
experience. Thisthen—so farasthefamilyisamediator—eaneiqalainsomeofthe
differences in health and well-being between black and white women In this paper, I
focus on one aspect of family life—child care and parent/child relationships-as it
impacts health and well-being. Parent/child relationships are especially relevant
becatneofﬂiemﬁquedemmdsﬂiatpareningplacesuponmthasmdfathas.
Children require tremmdous amounts of economic, physieal, and emotioml support
Whensuchcapacitiesarealreadystrainedtomaximmn—as couldoccurwhenmoﬂ'lers
and fathers deal with oppressive forces such as racism and sexism—the impact of
family life produces different consequences for different groups. In order to gain a
fill] grasp of this, I will begin by reviewing the literature on gender and race
differences in health and well-being, and then move on to the impact of parenthood
and parent/child relationship quality before proceeding with my analysis.

PREVIOUS RESEARCH
Gender 01d Hedth 0161 W ell-being

Sex differentials in health and well-being are well-documented (Kessler &
McRae 1981; Bird & Fremont 1989; Gove 1984; Verbrugge 1985,1989; Verbrugge &
Madans 1985; Waldron 1976). Biologieal or constitutional arguments attribute these
sexdiﬂ‘a'anialmcetainbiologicalfactmsswhaschmmosomalmldhmnnial
differences, and woman's reproductive physiology (Verbrugge 1985, 1989; Waldron
1976). For example, woman have two large X chromosomes, while men have only
one Xand one smallechhromosome. It is believedthatthe larger Xchromosomes
containmoregenetic information, arldthatthis isresponsible forthehighersurvival
ratesoffemaleinfants. Fmthermore,hormonaldiﬂ‘erencesinmenandwomenare
also attributed to women's lower rates ofprernenopausal coronary heart disease
(Nathanson 1989).

Another argument posits that sex differentials in health and well—being are
attributable to differential socialization and role occupation For example, men's higher
levels of mortality are generally attributable to the socially ordained patterns of riskier
male behavior, like cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption (Waldron 1988).
Waldron (1976) estimates that male mortality exceeds fenmle by roughly 100%, but
that one-third of this difference is attributable to men's higher levels of smoking, and
one-shah is explained by a greater prevalence of aggressive, competitive, risky
behavior. Despite this, the seven year advantage in mortality favoring women is

diminished due to women's greater levels of illness. Women experience more chronic

4
conditions and adopt the sick role more frequently than men (Verbrugge 1985). For

acute conditions, a 20-30% difference between men and women has been documented
Even when reproductive related morbidity is controlled, a sizable sex diﬂ‘erence
remains (Verbrugge 1985; Verbrugge & ngard 1987). The sex disadvantage is
well-dowmented for psychological well-being as well (Gove 1984, 1972; Gove &
Tudor 1973).

Explanations for these differences usually focus upon the nature of
submdinationforwomenandﬂtemuquemlesthatnmmdwonmocwpymour
society. Women have traditionally been eiqaected to take the nmturant, affective roles,
while men have been ascribed to instrumental, rational onw. While women's and
men's roles are transmuting, substantial pressure is still exerted on men to be "men"
and women to be "women". It is hypothesized by various researchers (Gove & Tudor
1973; Gove & Hughes 1979; Verbrugge 1989, Bird & Fremont 1989) that these roles
differentially expose the genders to risks associated with differing levels of health and
well-being. The notion of acquired risks and social exposure has been shown to be
powerful predictors of women's poorer health and well-being Verbrugge's (1989)
suggestive ﬁndings unveiled a male health disadvantage when social factors like lesser
levels of employment, stress and unhappiness levels, were controlled. Bird & Fremont
(1989) uncovered similar results when gender speciﬁc time constraints, like

housework, childcare, paid employment, leisure, and sleep, were controlled.

Rare, Hedth aid Well—being

The best knowledge of racial differences in health comes from the Secretary's
Task Force on Black and lVﬁnority Health conducted by the United States Department
of Health and Human Services. Released in 1985, the Task Force's report found that
Blacks s'uﬂ‘er 59,000 excess deaths annually. The term "excess deaths" is used to refer
m"d1ediﬂ’mbetwemﬂienmnbaofdeaﬂisexpaimcedbynﬁnoﬁtygrotmsmd
thenumberofdeathsthatwouldhaveoccmredinthatgroupifitexperiencedthe
samedeathratesforeachageandsexasthewhitepopulation(Secretary'sTaskFcrce
1985). Estimates for 1988 put the total number of excess deaths for blacks at as- many
as 80,000 annually (Hale 1992). Speciﬁc causes for this mortality include cancer,
cardiovascular disease and stroke, chemical dependency, diabetes, homicide and
accident deaths, and infant mortality (Secretary's Task Force 1985). Aﬁican-American
death rates from diabetes, cirrhosis, infant mortality, homicides, and acquired immune
deﬁciency syndrome (AIDS) were found to be two or more times greater than that for
whites (Hale 1992). Black males have the greatest chance for age-adjusted mortality-
1.6 times greater than white male, and 1.8 times greater than black females. Aﬁiean-
American females have a 1.5 timm greater age-adjusted mortality risk than white
females. The disadvantage experienced by blacks in physical health is also mirrored
in mental health. Although only 12.3 percent of the total population, African-
Americans comprised almost 20 percent of all hospital admissions in 1980, which
included state and county mental hospitals, private psychiatric hospitals (Mandelscheid
& Barrett 1987). Furthermore, non-whites are consistently diagnosed with more

6
serious mental illnesses than whites (Bell et al 1983), tend to have higher rates of

phobic disorders (Brown et a1 1990), and are over-represented in the homeless and
drug addicted populations, which have clear links to mental illness (Taylor 1992).

Many of the explanations for these disparities focus upon the structural
disadvantages face by blacks in our racially stratiﬁed society. Poussaint (1983:234)
contendsthat"thereappeartobenosafety-netsthatprotectthehealthorthepsycheof
the Aﬁo—Ameriean ﬁom institutional racism, poverty, high unemployment, and a
stagnant economy". Aﬁican—Americans are over-represented in groups of the
homeless, and the chemically dependent. They are younger, poorer, and less likely to
be ﬁllly employed than their white counterparts (Hale 1992). Such factors contribute
to the African-American health and well-being disadvantage.

Pa'enthood and Psychological W ell-being

Parenthood today is marked by a conﬂict of ideals and reality. Many hold the
beliefthat parenthood is an avenue to fulﬁllment. To be a parent is to be imbued-at
least ideally—with a particular status not accorded to the childless. In general,
becoming a parent delivers almost instant perceptions of stability, trustworthiness, and
normalcy. Despite such clearly pronatalistic ideals, much social science research
suggests that parenthood negatively impacts a parent's health and well-being (see
McLanahan & Adams 1987, Ross, Mirowsky & Goldstein 1990 for reviews). When
one considers the ambivalent nature of parenthood—it is ﬁtlﬁlling and at the same time
detrimental-questions arise as to the nature of the relationship between parents and

children How can something that most believe to be important and enriching

7 .
simultaneously detract ﬁom our health and well-being?

Umberson & Gove (1989) examined this question in light of the costs and
beneﬁts associated with parenting. Hypothesizing that the obligations of parenting
negatively impact parents' well-being while the value placed upon children by parents
provided meaningﬁllness and positive impact, they found modest relationships between
parenthood and psychological well-being. Nhrried respondents with adult children
living away from home were found to have the most positive states of affect and
satisfaction. Their ﬁnding lend support to the conclusions ofRoss, et. al. (1990), and
Reskin & Coverman (1985) that children in the home decrease psychologieal well-
being and that positive effects of children do not appear tmtil the children leave home.
This indicates that the obligations of child-rearing-the ﬁnancial, physical and
emotional costs— mediate the positive regard that parents have for children overall.
Umberson (1989) formd that quality of the parent-child relationships, as well as
parent's characteristics such as age, marital status, employment status and gender had a
signiﬁcant effect on psychological well-being btlt that living arrangements, along with
number and ages of children had only minimal effects.

Gender diﬁ‘erences in well-being are especially relevant considering that the
bulk of child-care responsibilities today still falls to the mother. Most of the literature
that examines gender differences looks at the impact of parental status as it is
mediated by other factors—parental satisfaction, or other measures of relationship
quality, and the interplay of work-family roles.

Results in the area of relationship quality have been mixed. Veroff et al (1981)

8
found that mother's were less positive in their appraisals of their children and reported

more parental problems than fathers, yet Hoffman & Manis (1978) found that mother’s
reported more parental satisfaction. Campbell et a1 (1976) found no gender diﬁ‘erences
inparartalsatisfaction Mothersandfathersdonotdiﬂ‘erinperceptionsofthequality
of the parerlt-child relationship, yet mother's report that they feel their children place
too many demands on them (Umberson 1989).

Given the diversiﬁcation of women's roles in society, interest in the impact that
these multiple roles have on both health and well-being has produced a bulk of
researchmostofwhichhas'focusedontheinteractionofworkerandmotherroles..
Concern over the interaction of these roles arises as women enter the paid labor
market in greater and greater numbers, while still retaining the bulk of childrearing
responsibilities which leads to issues of role strain and role conﬂict. Role strain arises
as the resources (ﬁnancial, physical, emotional, temporal) required of parents become
stretched to their limits or are nonexistent. Role conﬂict arises as the occupation of
two or more roles place conﬂicting demands upon the occupant. For working
mothers, there are two competing hypotheses in regards to the nature of well-being
and health: (1) multiple roles contribute to greater health and well-being as the
occupation of these roles enhances self-perceptions, self-esteem, and personal efﬁcacy;
(2) multiple roles increase the demands placed upon the occupant and lead to role
strain and conﬂict which detracts from well-being and health. Support has been found
for both hypotheses. Working mothers were found to have higher levels of
psychological well-being if their husbands shared Childcare responsibilities (Kessler &

9
McRae 1982, Ross et a1 1983). Furthermore, Ross et al (1983) found that the beneﬁts

of working for mothers was negated if there was a conﬂict between role ideals and
role occupation. For example, in couples who believed in "traditional" work-family
roles, there wm no positive effect on well-being for working mothers. Barnett &
Marshall (1992) found that quality of relationships between working mothers and their
children was the best predictor of psychological distress, but that employed mothers
were at no greater risk of distress than non-employed mothers.
Paenthood md Hysicd Health

In general, the literature dealing with physieal health and parenthood habitually
weave gender into their analysis. This probably stems from the fact that women are,
more often than not, the physical caretakers of children, and therefore are more
vulnerable to the effects of children on health It is women who—despite growing
numbers of full-time and career oriented participation in the labor market—labor an
extra month per year doing "the second shift" (see Hochschild 1990). It is women
who tend to the sniﬁles and sneezes of childhood, and do much of the physically
intensive childcare labor. Such is the physieal reality of caretaking in contemporary
families. 1

Overall, the effects of parenthood on physical health reveal ﬁnding similar to
those which studied psychological well-being. Children have been found to have
mixed results on the physical health of their parents, but one thing is clear in the
literanne, physieal health is not improved by the presence of children in the home (for
a review see, Ross et al 1990), but tendencies toward health damaging behaviors are

10 ~

reduced by the presence of children in the home (Umberson 1987). Gove (1984) and
Arber (1991) found that the presence of and number of children were associated with
worse health for women, while Bird and Fremont (1989) found that time spent in
child-eare had an insigniﬁcant impact on self-reported health Although, childcare was
fomdtobeinsigniﬁeantintheBird&Fremontstudy,theirstudydoesprovidesome
evidence that when time spent in gender-speciﬁc social roles, i.e. child-rearing and
housework—is controlled, the gender differences in morbidity are reversed This
supports the non-signiﬁcant ﬁnding of Verbrugge (1989).
Rare, Parenthood and Health aid W ell-being

Although parenthood and its' connections to health and well-being is a well-
researched subject among whites, relatively few studies have speciﬁeally dealt with the
experiences of black parents, or compared blacks and whites. Overall, the research
that has been done reveals different patterns than those found in the white population.
Broman (1988) found that parenthood was unrelated to satisfaction with life or family.
Coleman et al (1987) found similar ﬁnding in a sample of middle-aged and older
black women—parental status was unrelated to self-esteem, self-efﬁcacy, and physical
health Reskin & Coverman (1985) found that the presence of any children in the
home was a signiﬁcant predictor of psycho-physical distress for white, but not black
women. While Reskin & Coverman found the interaction between being black and
having children in the home to be signiﬁcantly related to levels of distress, Waldron
and Jacobs (1989) found having children in the home beneﬁcial to the health of
employed black, but not employed white women. In fact, Waldron & Jacobs' ﬁndings

11
indicate that for white. but not black women, many of the social roles which produce

beneﬁts to health and well-being may be interchangeable. This lends support to
Coleman et al's (1987) assertion that the interconnectedness of the social roles of

. spouse, mother, and worke in the black community may account for the lack ofeﬂ‘ect
found in research when the roles are studied individually.

Intergeneraiond Emotional Support

Anodramrpmtantcomponmtofresemchonparmthoodexmninesmeimpact
that intergenerational support has upon the health and well-being of family members,
particularly aging parents. Within this area there are two major substantive issues:

(1) the relationships between the aging parents and their adult children, and (2) the
kinds of support, instrumental and affective, that is exchanged between family
members. The present study examines parent's perceptions of the emotional support
received from their children aged 16 and over. Such support is not bound by age or
ﬁnancial resources. Feeling loved and cared for is essential regardless of stage in the
life course. This can be especially true for parents, who may invest a lot in the
parental role, and who may judge their successes or failures by their perceptions of the
emotional support received ﬁom their children.

Emotional support is recognized as an important measure ofthe quality of
parent-child relationships, and is equally important to the health and well-being of
parents (Mancini & Blieszner 1989). For example, Houser & Berkman (1984) found
only a minimal association between income and ﬁlial relationships, suggesting that the
ﬁnancial aspects of parent-child relationships are secondary to the emotional ones.

12
Evidence exists that close parent-child relations can intervene in aging parents

mortality rates and buffer older parents from many of the difﬁculties associated with
aging like declining health and social losses (Silverstein & Bengton 1991).
Furthermore, parental self-esteem is increased if they perceive close relationships, by
way of communication and support, with their children (Demo et al 1987). The use of
theadultchildasaconﬁdant by theparent increasesthe likelihoodofbothgivingand
receiving aid which then impacts the well-being of the parents (Mutran & Reitzes
1984).

Intergenerational relations are of particular interest within black families due
to the well-documented nature of the extended kin system (for a review see Taylor et
al 1990). Because blacks are more likely to reside in extended family households
(Angel & Tienda 1982), there are ideally more opportunities for support of all kinds to
be exchanged between parents and children. Emotional support is of special interest in
black family research As Silverstein & Bengton's (1991) research demonstrate,
affectionate relationships can intervene in declining health and mortality. The question
which then arises is whether or not affectionate parent-child relationships can alleviate
at least some of the impact that racial oppression has on health and well-being of
black parents. There are few studies which examine this topic.

One study examines the impact that family ties have upon the well-being of
blacks (Ellison 1990), but it does not separate out the effects of children from other
family members. Overall, the study revealed a strong linkbetween close family

relations and personal happiness that was consistent across all age groups. For older

13
blacks, close family relations were related to life satisfaction

Insmntheprecedingdiscussionlmsproducedseveral generalimtionswith
regard to the health and well-being of diﬁerent groups in our society. Women
experience poorer health, yet live longer than men. Blacks, as compared to whites,
suﬂ‘erﬁompoorerhealth, andhave 1.5 ormoretimes greaterage-adjustedmortality
rate than whites (Hale 1992). Parents experience a variety of diﬂ‘erences in health and
well-being, indicating that parenthood has mixed effects upon a person's health.
Overall, however, the presence of children in the home does not effect health
positively (see McLanahan & Adana 1987, and Ross, et a1, 1990 for reviews) but,,as
parents and children age, relationships can have a positive impact for the well-being
and health of parents, especially for those who perceive a close and loving relationship
with their children. Racial differences in the impact that parenthood has upon health
and well-being has also documented mixed results which sometimes contradict those
ﬁnding for the white population Yet, as Taylor, et al (1990) points out, there is a
dearth of research addressing issues such as this, and as such. many empirical
investigations leave us with distorted and unclear images of black family life in
general, and of the impact of parenthood on black health and well-being in particular.
All of these substantive issues fuel the present study. However, it is fundamentally
different ﬁom previous research in two ways. First, I examine not only women health
as it is impacted by experiences of childcare and parenting, but men's as well. This is
importantbeeauseinanerawhengendaroles mustbecomemoreﬂuidtoadaptto

changing societal forces, and men take more active roles in their families, researchers

l
l
I
I

\

must address these changes in their work as well. Second, I compare black and white
parents' experiences of childcare and parenting as it impacts health which is important
because as noted above, there is a dearth of literature concerned with black and white
comparisons. Again this is a major omission if the goal of social research is to create
complete, and accurate understanding of the society in which we live.

MEIHODS

The present study is designed to test the following hypotheses: (1) The level of
parent-child relationship quality and experiences of childcare will affect subjective
health and well-being positively—higher quality relationships will improve subjective
health and well-being; '(2) Measures of parent-child relationship quality and childcare
will help us to interpret the impact of race and gender on the subjective health
measures; (3) These measures of childcare and parent-child relationship quality will
help us to interpret subjective health and well-being differently for different race-
gender groups: white women, white men, black women, and black men.

(DEW

A ~ANT/The data for this study was taken ﬁem the American's Changing Lives (ACL)
collected by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan The ACL is a
multistage, stratiﬁed area probability sample of noninstitutionalized adults 25 and over.

The overall response rate was 76%. Blacks and those over 60 years of age were

oversampled The oversampling ofblacks makes the ACL appropriate to examine
w

racial differences, however because of the relatively small sample of other minority

14

15
groups (N=120, 3.3% of the sample), only black-white differences will be examined

Please see House, 1986 for more details.
Variables

Independent variables for this analysis include race and gender, which were
dichotomized so that 1=black and l=fema1e. Blacks comprised 32.5% of the sample,
while women comprised 62.5%. Forty-two percent of the sample were parents, with
thesamepercentagereportingtheirchildren livingwiththem.

Measures of the quality of parenting and childeare experiences include three
measures of subjective perceptions of childcare, a measure of parental satisfaction, and ‘
a measure ofolder child emotional support. As suggested by House, et al (1988),
frequency of contact or other more quantitative measures of parent-child relationships
may not necessarily tap relationship quality issues. For instance, contacts may be
initiated by both parents and children because of an underlying sense of obligation or
societal expectations toward the parent or child However, as common same tells us,
spendingtimewith someonebeeausewehayetoandspendingtimewith someone
because we want to are distinct motivations for pursuing a relationship. The impact
that the relationship has on the people involved, therefore, would also be qualitatively
discrete, with different consequences for perceived health and well-being It is for
this reason that subjective qualitative measures of the parent-child relationship were
chosen

The measures of childcare experiences are designed to tap whetherthe
respondent feelsdlatﬂreyarepersonallybeneroﬂ'becateeofdlechildcareﬂtatthey

l6
perform ("self is better"), whether or not they believe that others are better off because

of the childcare that they perform ("others are better"), and to what extent the
respondent enjoys performing childcare. Parental satisfaction is measured by a three
item scale comprised of two positive measures ("At this point in your life, how
satisﬁed are you with being a parent?" and "How happy are you with the way your
child has turned out?") and one negative measure ("How often do you feel bothered or
upsaasaparent?"). Responsesweresummed, andavelagedsothathigheraverage
scores represent higher levels of parental satisfaction This seale is highly reliable with
an alpha reliability coefﬁcient of .942. Perceived older child emotional support is
similarly measured by a four item scale with two positive measures ("How much does
your son/daughter/children make you feel loved and cared f ." and "How much is
he/she willing to listen when you need to talk about your worries and problems?") and
two negative measures ("How much is he/she critical of you?" and "How much do you
feel he/she makes too many demands on you?"). Alpha reliability for older child
emotional support is .972.
.L. Age, income, education, employment status, marital status, and number of
{' children are controlled for ill all equations. On average, the sample was older (due to
i over sampling of older adults)-mean age was 53. Most respondents led at least a

12th grade education. Mean income was between $15,000-W Twenty-one
\‘ﬂ‘ﬂ’ﬂﬂ #W___#//
percent of respondents children were under 18>me at least one child

 

’/

living at home. The categories of marital status is dummy coded with "never nulrried"

as the excluded category. Fifty-four percent of respondents were married, 11.3% were

17
divorced, 4.8% were separated, and 18.1% were widowed Slightly over 50% of the

sample was employed Employment status was dichotomized where l=employment.

The dependent measures are self-rated, or subjective health and CESD-ll mean
score, a measure of self-rated psychologieal well-being Subjective health is measured
by a single item which asks the respondent "How would you rate your health at the
present time, would you say it is excellent, very good, good, fair or poo." Responses
were coded so that better health corresponds with high scores. Self-rated
psychologieal well-being is constructed from 11 items which asks the respondent about
various symptoms of depression, happiness, and the ability to which the respondent
felt understood, and liked by others. Responses for the 11 items were summed and
averaged A high score indicates a high level of depressive symptoms. This scale is
very reliable with an alpha level of .83 (Umberson et a1 1992).

Because of the nature of the questions posed here, subjective measures of
health and well-being were chosen. Subjective or self-rated measures have the bereﬁt
of avoiding the gender and racial bias that can occur in more objective measures, such
as physician diagnosis (Ross & Bird 1994; Taylor 1992). Given the argument of this
paper that racial and gender oppression prevail and differentially impact experiences of
family and consequently, health and well-being, measures that can avoid such biases
are extremely preferable. Furthermore, self-rated health has been found to be a very
powerful predictor of mortality-better even than physician-based diagnosis (Mossey &
Shapiro 1982;. Maddox & Douglas 1973).

Analysis

A series ofordinary least squares regressions were performed to test the
hypotheses. Stage one regressed the two health measures on the control variables.
Stage two regressed the health measures on the predictors of parent-child relationship
quality. This stage of analysis tests hypotheses one and two. Stage three repeated
stage two for each of the four race-gender groups, black women, white women, black
menandwhitemen Stagethreewasdesignedtotesthypothesisthree—thatthe
impact of the parent-child relationship on health and well-being would differ according
tothedifferentsocial locationsaccordedtoeachofthese groups.

FINDING
Preliminary analysis (not shown) revealed that none of the variables were
highly inter-correlated Where higher correlations did occur, it was an expected
relationship. For example, many of the independent variables were moderately
correlated, the highest score being between parental satisfaction and older child
emotional support (r=.606, p<.01). As noted above, this is an expected relationship
Wubjecﬁve measures that tap similar experience. If a
person believes that he or she is loved and cared for by their children, it makes sense
to assume that they would be more likely to be satisﬁed with being a parent.
Similarly moderate inter-correlations were found for some of the socio-demographics

which again is expected. The highest correlation was found between income and

 

 

w
education (r=.527, p < .01). All coefficients reported below are misgndardized with
\ #___.. A ‘ Ash”, -_—‘(f I ""-—-.-..___.~

 

18

19
the standard errors reported in parentheses next to the coefficients.

By regressing self-rated health and psychological well-being on the socio-
demographic variables, we ﬁnd most of the expected relationships. As Table 1

TABIE 1: WWWRATH) HEALTHAND
PSYGIILXHCAL WHLBHNG (N SwO-DENIXIRAPHKB

Self-rated Psychological

Health Well-being
race -.103*(.041) .112"(.041)
sex .007(.039) .123“(.038)
number of children -.005(.019) .014(.018)
age -.009"""(.002) -.01 1"(.006)
income .065**(.010) -.045"""(.009)
education . .044"(.007) -.043"(.006)
employment status .413”(.046) -.202"(.045)
married -.026(.067) -.386”(.065)
divorced -.066(.077) -.079(.075)
separated -.008(.099) .077(.096)
widowed .105(.080) -.204”(.078)
constant 3.026" 1.605”
R-squarcd .182“ .127"
N 3175 3175

Note: **=p<.01 *=p<.05 Standarderrorsareinparenthesesnexttothecoeﬁicients.

illustrates, the socio-demographic variables explain a moderate to good amount of the

 

MF—c—ﬁp—rh_

WW psychological well-being
Blacks reported poorer self-rated health and more depressive symptom than whites.
While women also reported more depressive symptom than did men, gender was not
found to be a statistically signiﬁcant predictor of self-rated health. This ﬁnding is
perplexing given the strength of the evidence that demonstrates that gender is asuong

predictor of health measures. For both health measures, employment status, income,

20
and edueation had positive impact. Younger respondents reported better health than
did older ones, but this was reversed on psychological well-being—older respondents
averaged fewer depressive symptoms. Married and widowed respondents reported
fewer depressive symptom than their never married counterparts.

Stage two of the analysis delves deeper by adding the measures of childcare
and parent-child relationship quality into the equations (see Table 2). Both models are
inrpreved by the addition of the independent variables. The explained variance
increases slightly for self-rated health, but is notably irnpreved for psychologieal well-
being The predictor, "self is better", signiﬁcantly affects both of the dependent ,
measures. Table2alsorevealsﬂratﬂrerelationslﬁpbetwearmceandboﬂrdependem
measures is explained away. This is an inmﬁgsﬁpﬂpssivggfgwdlmwd
relationship between race and health measures. It seems that by holding the level at
which the respondents believe either thermelves or others to be better oﬁ‘ by the
childcare they provide, we see that the expected differences between black and white
health cease to be signiﬁeantly different. The relatiomhip of sex remains the same as
in stage one of the analysis: women report more depressive symptom than men, while
sex was not found signiﬁcant for self rated health. Older child emotional support had
a negative impact on self-rated health, which runs counter to my expectations.

Parental satisfaction was related to better self-rated health and fewer depressive
symptom. Beeauseofthewayinwhichtheinstrumentwasconstructed, a
subsmntialdecreasemdresmnplesizeoccmedaSOMyﬂrosewhomponedpang

any childcare were included in some questions. Because of this sample attrition, I

21

TABIE 2: mm OF SELF RATED HEALTH AND
PSYCIHMCAL WEIL-BEING m AIL PREDICITRS

Self-rated Health Psychological
Well-being
race -.103(.o70) .069(.072)
sex I .013(.072) .162‘(.074)
number of children .008( .029) .035(.030)
age -.007(.004) -.011"(.oo4)
income .072**(.017) -.os7"(.017)
education .019(.013) -.033"(.013)
employment status .324**(.080) I -.062(.082)
married -.059(.136) -.358**(.138)
divorced . -.106(.141) -.165(.144)
separated .082(.155) .046(.158)
widowed -.209(.186) .009(.189)
older child support -.054*(.022) .012(.022)
parental satisfaction .l4l*“'(.042) -.323"(.042)
enjoyment of childcare .037(.054) 1 .013(.055)
self is better .124**(.047) -.099*(.048)
others are better .008(.031) —.059(.032)
constant 1 2.175" 2.755"
R square .201" .204”
N 1062 10oz

Note: ”=p<.01 *=p<.05
Standard errors are in parentheses next to the coefﬁcient.

22
next entered each of the predictors singly, removing "enjoyment of childrcare" from

the analysis beeause it failed to produce any effects in premlinary analysis (see Tables
3 and4). All fourmodels mTableBermlainagodamomtofthevarianceinself-
rated health As Table 4 indieates, the four models predicting psychologieal well-
being explain slightly less variance than those for self-rated health, but they still
ermlainagoodamountofit. Acrossbothneasmes,racepredictsbettcrhealthand
well-being for only parental satisfaction and older child emotional support. The
impact of race on health and well-being is explained away for both "self is better" and
"othersarebetter". ThisrepeatsthepattemnotedinTableZabove. Sexisa
signiﬁeant predictor of psychological well-being only. For psychological well-being,
all of the independent/ variables wee febmdto be signiﬁcant and predicted fewer

___.a._z H

depressive”— symptom: Better self-ratedhealth was predicted by "self ls better" and
paren satisfaction
i
/ Theseﬁndrngprovrdesupportformyﬁrstandsecondhypodleses,mﬂrone
\wmﬁf

exception: the negative impact that older child emotional support was found to have

 

 

“'1’ ’

on both health measures in Table 2. Overall, however, higher quality relationship with
children do seem to produce better experiences of health and well-being In the ease
of the independent variables, "self is bater" and "others are better", it seems that they
have a powerﬁrl impact upon the dependent variables for blacks. These measures of
childcare experiences explained away statistically signiﬁeant health differences
between blacks and whites. The third anal si my third hypothesis
that these effects would differ by the four race-sex groups in this study: black women,

TABIE 3: REGRESIG‘I (F SHE-RATED HEALTH

23

ON PRDICIORS AND CONTROLS
1 2 3 4

race -.112 (.069) -.123 (.070) -.019"(.041) -.099* (.042)
sex -.023 (.071) -.004 (.071) -.014 (.039) .007 (.039)
numberof -002 (.029) -.012 (.029) -029 (.019) -.007 (.019)
children
age -.015**(.003) -.016“*(.003) -.010**(.002) -.009**(.002)
income .072**(.017) .068"(.017) .066"(.010) .067"(.009)
education .023 (.013) .023 (.012) .045"(.045) .043**(.007)
employed .291**(.079) .298**(.080) .407"(.046) 4177*(047)
married .009 (.134) .030 (.134) -.165“(.073) -012 (.069)
divorced -.069 (.140) -.063 (.141) -.181" (.081) -.063 (.079)
separated -.109 (.154) .007 (.155) -.089 (.101) .114 (.100)
widowed -.l36 (.185) -.121 (.186) -007 (.083) .102 (.081)
1. self isbetter .173**(.043) ——. .— .—
2. others are

better --- .029 (.030) — ~-
3. parental

satisfaction .— --—- .067"(.Ol3) ---
4. older child
support _ —..- .— -.002 (.011)
constant 2294" 3.479" 3.010" 3.028"
R-squate .177" .165" .206" .201"
N 1079 1079 3176 3146
Note: **=p<.01 I"=p<.05

"---" indicates that predictor was not entered for that model.
StandarderrorsarenotedinparentMsesnexttocoeﬁicients.

24
TABIE 4: mm (F PSYQDHIHCAL WEIL-BHNG

ON PREDICIIRS AND W

1 2 3 4
race .083(.072) .098(.072) .116"(.040) .1 15“(.041)
sex .086*(.074) .174*(.074) .14-4"(.034) .139“(.038)
nrn'nber of .026(.029) .037(.029) .049*(.018) .023(.018)
children
age -.010"(.003) -.009*(.003) -.009"*(.001) -.007"(.002)
income -.059"*(.017) -.055"”"(.017) -.045"(.009) -.042**(.009)
education -.031*(.013) -.O32*(.013) -.045"(.006) -.044**(.006)
employed -.030(.082) -.032(.082) -.201"(.045) -.193"(.045)
married -.500**(.138) -.516"(.139) -.196“(.040) -.342"‘"'(.067)
divorced -.24l(.145) -.247(.146) .O79(.079) -.303(.077)
separated -.023(. 160) -.029(.160) .216*(.099) .1 18(.O98)
widowed -.103(.191) -. 1 14.192) -.050**(.081) -.177(.079)
1. self is better -.173**(.044) --- -—- ~—
2. others are «~—
better -.O71*(.031) --- ---
3. parental
satisfaction --- --- -.086**(.012) ~—
4. older child .
support ..... —... . -—- -.040"(.011)
constant 2.066" 1.612" 1.636 1.475"
R-square .159" .151" .138""'I .129”
N 1079 1079 3176 3149

Note: **=p<.01 ‘=p<.05 '
"-4—" indieates tint predictor was not entered into the model. Standard errors are indicated in
parentheses next to the coefﬁcient. '

25
white women, black men and white men R-squared statistics indicate that all of the

mbgrummcdelseiqalainamodaatemgoodmmmuofﬂievanancemﬂiedepmdmt
health measures (see Tables Sa-6b). For self-rated health (see Table 5a and 5b), "self
isbetter" andparuital satisfactionremainsigniﬁeant forvvhites only. Thisis
hnpmtmnmhgluofdieﬁndingsﬂiatbomwaesigrﬁﬁcmuwhmdremﬁmsmnple
wasanalyzedtogether. Anodrerimportarrtraceandsexdiﬂerenceappearswhenwe
look at psychologieal well-being (Table 6a and 6b). "Others are better" signiﬁcantly
predicts fewer depressive symptoms for black women only, while "self is better"
remains statistically signiﬁcant predictor for whites. For black women and whites, the '
panansreﬂectedbyﬂieseﬁndingsmemhrorhnagesofonemoﬂra'momﬁngto
important differences between blacks and whites. Consistent with my previous
analyses, parental satisfaction improves respondents psychological well-being, but
older child emotional support was found to improve well-being signiﬁeantly for all
groups but white men.

Itrsunponanttobneﬂynotethemrpactofsomeofdiemdependentvanables

\

ontl'rerelationshiptothehealthmeasmes. Whenwelookatthemaritaleategories,

 

 

we ﬁnd that being mried remains a signiﬁcant predictor of psychological well-being
for black women only. For black men, marriage improves psychological well-being
only when older child emotional support was held constant. This ﬁnding was not
found in the white subgroups. That marriage is a signiﬁcant predictor for blacks, but
not whites is an important ﬁnding, especially for black women, since they are most
likely of any of these sub-groups to be the sole heads of households.

26

 

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gig Eu: >ﬂ mug—DEN“.— 75
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Marriage provides beneﬁcial effects across all of the independent variables of
parenting and childeare experiences for black women. The addition of another parent
to the household may alleviate many of the drains on health and well-being that can
occur for single parents. For black women, this may be dually beneﬁcial alleviating
some (but certainly not all) of the strains not only of single parenting, but single
pmenting as a black woman in a sexist and racist society.

The ﬁndings revealed here support my third hypothesis—that blacks' and whites'
experiences of childeare and parenting do seem to impact health and well-being
differently for the different groups. These differences which have been rmoovered
may be a reﬂection of fundamental race and gender differences in childcare

experiences, a topic which I will discuss in the next section.

DISCUSSION
The major ﬁndings ofthis study reveal that there are indeed diﬁ‘erencesﬂ 1n

/,...____

health and well-being by race- -gender group as it is mediated by the aspects of

“......

parenthood measured here. The major ﬁndings are: (1) The respondent believing that
he/she is better off because of the childcare that they perform predicts better health
and well-being for whites only, and believing that others are better off because of the
childcare that he/she perform predicts better psychological well-being only for black
women. (2) Parental satisfaction was found to predict better self-rated health for
whites, but not blacks. (3) Older child emotional support predicts less depressive

symptoms for all groups except white men. (4) Being rnan'ied signiﬁcantly predicts

3O

31
better psychological well-being for blacks, but not whites. This is especially true for

black women for whom being married predicted better well-being across all measures
of parenting and childcare experiences. (5) The two variables "self is better" and
"others are better" explain away some of the relationships of the socio-demographics
and self-rated health and psychological well-being, and more importantly they explain
away the effect of race on health and well-being.

The two ﬁndings that "self is better" predicts better health and well-being for
whites, and that "others are better" predicts better psychological well-being for black
women may indicate different perspectives of childcare within white and black
communities. For example, Collins (1990) discusses the importance of "other
mothering" in the black community, and community oriented child-rearing. Similarly,
Stack (1974) reports similar ﬁndings in The Flats, the black community which she
studied "Child-keeping" was a familiar strategy for childcare where various kin
would care for a woman's child for periods of time. This strategy grew out of the
economic deprivation experienced within the community which required such pooling
of resom'ces for survival's sake. It was also community recognition of the problems
faced by very young women with children—"child keeping" allowed other kin to care
for a child when there were doubts about the emotional ability of the mother to care
for the child herself. These kin networks that both Stack and Collins describe are
controlled and maintained by black female kin. Black women may be more affected
by caring for children, and having such care being connected to the community, may

produce a more external focus for the work that they do. Thus, the impact of

32
believing that others are better off because of the childcare performed may be a
signiﬁcant predictor of health for black women This is also consistent with the
ﬁndings that, for whites, believing that they are personally better off because of the
childcare that they perform signiﬁeantly impacts better health and well-being. As
Collins (1990) discusses, Euro-centric, as compared to Afro-centric child rearing,
focuses more upon the individual relationship between parent and child For whites,
the child becomes the private responsibility of the parents, whereas within black
communities, as in Stack's (1974) study, children are seen as responsibilities of the
cormnunity delineated by the child's kin network. In white communities, individual
responsibility for childcare is highly valued Therefore, believing that they are
personally better oﬁc because of the childcare performed may be signiﬁcant predictors
of health for whites beeause of the more individual, and private context within which
childeare occurs. These conclusions must be approached with some caution. In
Stack's study, the conjn‘numtyris a poor, urban community of blacks, and—“adaptations,
like "child keeping" are adaptations to the speciﬁc circumstances of poverty.
Likewise, Collins' analysis does not distinguish class differences in this commrmal
orientation. Because of this, generalizations must be approached withthggg‘operﬁhﬂ
eaution. It may be the differences that are attributed to race, may primarily stem from
-\._.
economic disparities and the disproportionate representation of blacks in the under
classes.
The next major ﬁnding was that parental satisfaction was found to predict

a .—-..——_._..,__,__-.—-

better self-rated health for white, but not for black respondents. This may be further

33
evidence for the structural constraints placed upon family life and health by racial

oppression. Given that blacks disproportionately make up the poorer segments of our
society, and given that whites, and white women in particular, are more likely to
have a partner in the household than their black counterparts, it could be that parental
satisfaction may be a function of these demographic patterns. When a family is poor,
little comfort and satisfaction may be found in the parent-child relationship when a
child reprments potential drain on already scarce resources. For whites, the simple
presence of another person, and the resom'ces that they bring to the relationship may
enable whites to enjoy the parental relationship more, thereby affecting their health
positively. This ﬁnding points to potential race and sex differences in parenting
experiences as well. For all groups, except white men, older child emotional support
predicts better well-being. That white men are not affected by older child emotional
support may point to the privileged social location that they generally occupy. It may
be that for white and black women, and black men, older child emotional support
alleviates some of the negative effect on well-being that subordinate positions create.
Finally, for blacks, in general, and black women, in particular, being married predicts
better health. Again this points to a major racial difference in the present study for
the reasons noted above. What all of these ﬁnding point to, is that for individuals in
diﬂerent race- gender groups, experiences of family life are indeed shaped by structural
constraints, producing differences which then impact health and well-being differently.
One ﬁnal note on my ﬁndings is necessary. The explanatory power of the

\f— .‘____‘________..-' a-

variables "self is better" and "others are better" seems an important ﬁnding, especially

where race is concerned. When I held "self is better" and "others are better" constant,
the signiﬁcant racial differences in health and well-being disappeared This is highly
suggestive, but must be interpreted somewhat cautiously because of the sample
attrition which occurred on these two measures (although the standard errors do not
indicate extreme sampling variability). It would be ideal to replicate this analysis with
a larger sample within subgroups. It must also be noted that because the data used
here is cross-sectional, causal relations between the variables are questionable. The
analysis here assumes eausal links between the variables, when it could be the case
that social selection is occurring where only the healthier segments of the population
are becoming parents which could then bias the ﬁndings. Future research must deal

with these issues by utilizing longitudinal designs to test for selection.

(DNCHJSION
Now that all of the numbers have been "crtmched", we are left to discern what
this research means—coefﬁcients and explained variances tell us only so much of the
story. I believe that the most important thing that this research leaves usﬂwith is the
impression that childcare and parenting as: it affects health and well-being are richly
complex aspects of our social lives. They are shaped by the intersections of race and
gender, producing different outcomes for different groups. This research gives us

insight into theunder-studied experiences of men—in general, we see by this research

 

that they are affected by childcare and parenting. This general observation is

important in itself, because of the dearth of research on men's experiences in this arena

34

35
of family life. Furthermore, for black men, it creates a more accurate portrait of their

social lives. Black men are the least understood and most rmder-studied of these
groups. When black men are included in social analyses, too often they are seen only
as a collective for social problems. This has led to a distorted image of black men's
lives. By placing black men in an analysis as parents, a valued social role, I hope that
a small, but important, piece has been added to the extremely limited understandings
that social science has of this group of individuals.

March also indicates that racial differences are extremely prevalent in

.- ~-m—u—..-.w, .‘._

 

 

 

 

 

the realm of parenting as it impact health and well-being. This research lends support
to the assertions of other scholars conceming different perspectives on childcare in
white and black communities, and suggests that these perspectives have important
impact on health and well-being. This has important implications for ﬁrrther research
because of past inattention to these differences in this ﬁeld of scholarship.

Overall, this research points to the necessity of examining race and gender as

__—_———_-‘-~-_—— _
,_ .____ .—-- "
_ —- _..._..- W

 

fundamental to the experiences of family life and its' subsequent impact on health and
well-being. Important differences exist which were only illuminated by sub- group
analysis. These differences must be accounted for if social science is to create an

accurate and complete portrait of the lives of those individuals who comprise our

society.

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