| This dissertation explores how immigrant status, neighborhoods, child care, and parenting contribute to young children's behavioral functioning and pre-literacy skills. Taking a relational developmental systems theories perspective, neighborhoods are considered as a primary setting through which differences arise between immigrant and non-immigrant children in the U.S. Four studies examine different aspects of the role of neighborhoods for immigrant families. The first study draws on data from the ethnographic component of Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three City Study to document child care perceptions among immigrant mothers, as well as the processes through which neighborhoods shape child care decisions. The remaining three studies use data from the three-year-old cohort (N = 999) of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, a neighborhood-based, longitudinal study. With these data, the second study compares immigrant and non-immigrant families' use of child care as a function of their neighborhood characteristics. The third study examines how both neighborhoods and child care are associated with four specific parenting behaviors (warmth, harshness, developmental stimulation, and physical aggression), again comparing immigrant and non-immigrant families. Finally, the fourth study builds on findings from the earlier studies to understand the ways in which neighborhoods, child care experiences, and parenting behaviors are linked with immigrant and non-immigrant children's early outcomes. Results are discussed with respect to each of the four studies, and also are integrated across studies to inform an overarching perspective on the importance of neighborhoods for immigrant families. Qualitative findings suggest that neighborhood networks of support assist immigrant parents in overcoming structural barriers to access center-based child care programs. Quantitative findings suggest that after accounting for family and neighborhood characteristics, immigrant and non-immigrant families are very similar in their use of center-based child care programs, parenting strategies, and children's outcomes. However, immigrants appear to be particularly sensitive to neighborhood conditions, with availability of neighborhood services promoting warm parenting behaviors among immigrant parents, and the density of neighborhood friend and kin networks contributing to the use of center-based child care among immigrant families. |
