Patient-child relationship qualities and child adjustment in highly stressed urban black and white families

Compared poor, highly stressed African-American and White, 2nd-6th grade ur ban parents and their children on: a) three parent-child relationship, clus ters (i.e., positive attitudes, involvement, and discipline practices); b) nine child adjustment variables; and c) patterns of relationships between t hese two sets of variables. There were no significant racial group differen ces on any parent-child relationship cluster. Although White children excee ded African-American children on social problem solving and realistic contr ol variables, few group differences were found in the relationships between parenting and child test-variables. In both groups, the parent attitude cl uster, reflecting overall warmth and soundness of the parent-child relation ship, was the strongest predictor of positive child outcomes on teacher and child self-ratings of adjustment. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.