Subtitle: The Early School Years
Author: Katherine Brown Rosier
Subject: Sociology/Women's Studies
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-2796-1
Paperback ISBN 0-8135-2797-X
Pages: 256 pp.
Description: A look behind the stereotypes at how low-income, inner-city African American mothers cope with their children's entry into school

"We're not Ozzie and Harriet, but we're not the Adams Family either!"

-Rhonda Craft, mother of three, in Mothering Inner-City Children: The Early School Years

"Rosier presents a bold and groundbreaking use of the narrative method. Mothering Inner-City Children is an engaging, consistently insightful, and deeply inspiring account of the challenges of parenting and growing up in poverty."-William A. Corsaro, author of The Sociology of Childhood

There are few groups more stereotyped and demonized than "welfare mothers," particularly low-income, African American women raising children in the inner city. But what are the day-to-day stories behind the stereotypes? How do African American mothers (both single women and those living with a partner) in poor families handle their roles as parents? What support networks do they rely on to help raise their children? How do their personal histories affect their parenting styles?

Sociologist Katherine Brown Rosier spent three years interviewing and observing Indianapolis mothers as their children made the transition from a Head Start program to kindergarten and through second grade, analyzing the families in their homes, schools, and other social settings. She brings forth the voices of the mothers, children, and their teachers, providing a multifaceted picture of how low-income African American families cope with the daily pressures and responsibilities of child rearing.

Rosier also examines how larger socio-economic factors influence these families' specific circumstances and histories. What child-rearing strategies do these mothers employ, she asks, to promote a smooth transition into school despite complex discontinuities among their homes, schools, and communities? How are these strategies viewed and supported or impeded by teachers, family, friends, and neighbors?

Until now, most research on poor African American families has focused so intently on the problems confronted by this seemingly homogenous group that the routine practices of every day life have been ignored. In this unique project, Rosier allows the families' individual experiences and thoughts to contribute to and complicate current research.

Katherine Brown Rosier is an assistant professor of sociology at Louisiana State University.