Lm. Burton et Rl. Jarrett, In the mix, yet on the margins: The place of families in urban neighborhood and child development research, J MARRIAGE, 62(4), 2000, pp. 1114-1135
In the 1990s, the most popular theoretical and empirical research issue con
cerning the local ecologies of families focused on the impact of family str
uctures (e.g., household composition) and processes (e.g., child management
strategies) on the relationship between urban neighborhoods and child and
adolescent development. In this article, we synthesize and critically exami
ne the decade's prevailing literature on the topic, organizing this review
into three areas: (a) the research designs of quantitative and ethnographic
studies of urban neighborhoods, families, and child outcomes; (b) the conc
eptual approaches used in these studies; and (c) the role of structural and
behavioral features of family and parenting as factors that influence the
relationship between urban neighborhoods and child development in ethnicall
y and racially diverse populations. Results suggest that although family ha
s been center stage in the neighborhood effects research question of the de
cade, it has remained on the margins in terms of theoretical and methodolog
ical specificity. Recommendations for future research are also offered.