ABSTRACT
Children’s prosocial and agonistic representations of relationships arise within the context of their experience with caregivers in early childhood. However, little is known about the impact of caregiving that is informally shared within networks of kin and family friends. Shared caregiving of young children is a well-recognized strength of African American women living in poverty, especially among young, single mothers (Brodsky, 1999; Chase-Lansdale, BrooksGunn, & Zamsky, 1994; Jackson, 1993; McAdoo, 1995). Extended networks of kin, Wctive kin, and family friends are resources that young mothers access in order to gain support both emotionally and in their caregiving responsibilities. Sadly, outside of studies of early child care, research has not considered the impact of these shared caregiving patterns on young children’s social emotional development, and speciWcally the development of empathic attitudes and behaviors. Randolph and Koblinsky (2001) caution that the impacts of multiple care providers of children of low-income African American mothers is not suYciently studied to state unequivocally that it is generally a positive experience. It is therefore important to study the impacts of caregiving in this context further, because families raising young children in violent inner cities are challenged to protect their children and nurture prosocial behaviors and attitudes.
