“Be My Guest”: The Link Between Concentrated Poverty, Race, and Family-Level Support

Abstract

Exposure to concentrated poverty is largely understood as reflecting the role of individual influences and racial disparities, with less information on the role of extended family. Coresiding with family members represents one classic mechanism reducing exposure to economic hardship, but we often combine those residing as “guests” with those who are “hosting” their extended family. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,054), I explore the impact of living with family on the likelihood of residing in concentrated poverty. I find that mothers who coreside as “guests” with family, but not those who are hosting their relatives, have significantly lower odds of living in impoverished neighborhoods compared with those who do not reside with relatives, once controlling for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. This research reveals that family networks do play a role in structuring neighborhood attainment, with strong implications for better understanding vulnerability to neighborhood poverty.

La importancia del contexto comunitario en la intervención con la familia: una revisión sistemática desde el trabajo social

“…El apoyo familiar actúa como una protección frente a la implicación de conductas agresivas en el contexto comunitario y favorece el bienestar (Jiménez et al, 2014) y las relaciones de apoyo con la familia se asocia significativamente a una buena salud mental y de bienestar (Cheung et al, 2017;Gómez et al, 2019). Sin embargo, la contabilización del apoyo familiar no altera la disparidad racial en los vecindarios pobres, pero sí sugiere que mejora el bienestar (Whitehead, 2018).…”

“…No obstante, hay cinco estudios que no sugieren ni explicitan la fundamentación teórica de sus investigaciones: McLeigh et al (2015), Merrick et al (2018), Wells, Lee, Li, Tan y McIntosh (2018, Whitehead (2018) y Chen y Lee (2021).…”

“…solo adolescentes e infantes recoge una muestra 17.500 adolescentes en 16 países diferentes(Steckermeier, 2019), mientras queNewland, et al, (2014) tiene un tamaño muestral de 149 adolescentes.-Sobre las investigaciones centradas en la población adulta menos de 60 años, se analiza una muestra de 4054 madres(Whitehead., 2018) el séptimo curso en un distrito escolar rural del Medio Oeste de Estados Unidos. La edad oscilaba entre los 12 y 14 años, siendo la media de 13 años.…”

Families in Poverty and Noncitizenship: An Intersectional Perspective on Economic Exclusion

“…Poverty, in an overarching sense, is about the individual’s or specific population’s inability to attain sufficient material resources. As growing poverty has been a core social problem of our time, ample efforts have been made to understand the ramifications of life in poverty on families (e.g., Einat & Benjamin, 2016; Einat & Strier, 2018; Gazso, McDaniel & Waldron, 2016; Halpern-Meekin, 2019; Whitehead, 2018).…”

“…The second important survival strategy for low-income individuals consists of reliance on social networks (Edin & Lein, 1997). Specifically, research refers to support from relatives, friends, and neighbors, who provide various types of assistance, including financial support (cash or other material support), services such as transportation and childcare (Brewster & Padavic, 2002; Edin & Lein, 1997; Gerstel, 2011; Harknett & Knab, 2007), and mutual living arrangements (Whitehead, 2018). However, despite the centrality of social support to the economic survival of people in poverty, research also shows that, in many situations, such individuals do not appeal to relatives and friends for support (material or otherwise) out of fear of being criticized or judged for their economic difficulties (Domínguez & Watkins, 2003; McIntyre, Officer & Robinson, 2003; Nelson, 2005; Offer, 2012) and because of the stigmatization of dependency (Fraser & Gordon, 1994).…”