Environmental Influences on Young Children's Behavior (continued)

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Children raised within impoverished environments are at risk for challenging behavior problems because they are frequently living in neighborhoods where there are limited positive role models for appropriate social behaviors. Frequently, the only adults children see who are making a "decent" living are making it in illegal activities. These children are more likely to be exposed to community violence, and this exposure is positively related to teachers' ratings of children's aggression within the classroom (Farver, Xu, Eppe, Fernandez, & Schwartz, 2005). "As neighborhood conditions worsened, the positive relationship between emotional support and mothers' nurturant parenting was weakened" (Ceballo & McLoyd, 2002, p. 160). As outlined by Walker and Sprague (1999), poverty sets the foundation for a variety of negative outcomes including school failure, delinquency, and violence.

Persistent Parental Unemployment

Poverty among children is directly related to adult unemployment. Indeed, 24 million America children in 2003 had no parent in their household who worked a full-time job, year-round. Almost 4 million of those children lived in families where neither their parents nor any other adult worked in the past year (Casey Foundation,2005).

The Casey Foundation (2005, p. 6) list several "obstacles that impede parents from steady employment" and, thus, keep their children in poverty. These include

• an inability to secure affordable and accessible child care,
• low parental literacy levels,
• limited transportation options that make if difficult for parents to commute to available jobs,
• disincentives that strip government benefits from families when they become employed and earn wages,
• parental substance abuse,
• domestic violence,
• a parental history of incarceration preventing them from securing a job, and
• a parental history of mental health disabilities—especially depression.

Single-Parent Families

Second only to poverty, "children in single-parent families are at increased risk for academic failure; increased likelihood of dropping out of high school or becoming a teen parent; and increased levels of depression, stress, anxiety, and aggression" (Casey Foundation, 2005, p. 52). Thirty percent of American children live in single-parent households. Forty-two percent of children in female-headed households live in poverty compared to 9% of children living with married parents (Casey Foundation, 2005).

Single-parent homes are not just made up of unmarried mothers. Single fathers make up almost one in five single parents living with their children (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). Research suggests that boys are less aggressive when a strong father or dominant male is in the home (Vaden-Kiernan, Ialongo, Pearson, & Kellam, 1995). But other factors such as the strength and consistency of parenting provided by the remaining adult, and a variety of other environmental and economic factors, can significantly lower the risk.

In addition, an increasing number of fathers (3.6 million in 2003) are staying home with the kids while Mom goes to work (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). This is a 54% increase from 1986, and it reflects a new generation of dads who, unlike many of their fathers, believe it is important to play a primary role in the parenting of their children. Thus, teachers are seeing more and more dads at school and parent-teacher conferences.

Regardless of who is providing the parenting, strong parenting and a supportive environment, including the support offered by a child's school, is the key to positive academic and social outcomes for children.