This research examined predictors of positive and negative parenting behaviors in homeless families. Personal and social resources were tested as predictors of parenting in an ethnically heterogeneous sample of 38 homeless children between the ages of 6 and 12 and their parents. Parents' social support networks included few familiar intimates. Social support did not predict positive or negative parenting. Stressors predicted negative but not positive parenting. Parental physical health and self-esteem mediated the relationship between stressors and negative parenting. Stressors significantly predicted parents' mental health, but mental health was not a significant mediator of negative parenting.
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