The Long Arm of Stress and Strength: Poverty, Religious Attendance, and Black Mothers’ Parent–Child Relationships Over Time

Positive mother–child relationships are essential for nurturing healthy family dynamics and promoting the well-being of both parents and children. These relationships are intertwined with broader social contexts and external factors. Using longitudinal data, we address the following questions: What are the group-based trajectories for poverty and religious service attendance among Black mothers during the first 15 years after childbirth? What are the factors associated with these group-based patterns? What are the relative associations of poverty and religious service attendance trajectories on Black mothers’ relationships with their children? Our findings revealed that (1) poverty levels reflect both stability and change, while religious attendance remained relatively stable and (2) religious service attendance was more strongly associated with higher levels of mother–child relationships than poverty was with lower levels. These results suggest that religious attendance is more likely to bring mothers and children together than poverty is to drive them apart.