Reflections on parenting practices that impact child rearing in a low-income community

Abstract

Parenting plays an important role in the socialisation of children and youth, and ineffective parenting has been associated with multiple negative social and health outcomes among young people. Any attempt to design contextually relevant multi-system interventions to improve parenting practices and reduce negative child and adolescent outcomes must be based on an understanding of how contextual factors influence parenting practices. A phenomenological reflective lifeworld approach was utilised to explore parents’ lived experiences of multiple intersecting socio-demographic factors and community social processes that impact on their parenting practices. This study was framed by social disorganisation theory rooted within an ecological framework. Using purposive sampling, data was collected from 47 parents comprising local residents and stakeholders (36 focus group participants and 7 individual interview participants) in a low-income community in Cape Town, South Africa, Thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed various socio-demographic factors characteristic of community disorder that intersect with parenting and contributes to neglectful parenting. These factors include socio-economic disadvantage that leads to parental stress for predominantly single parent families, and a lack of formal and informal social control compounded by community disorder. This highlights the need for multi-level parenting interventions that address both community structural and social processes