Although several studies show that self-esteem varies according to neighborhood context, few have directly examined potential mediators of this association. In this paper, we use longitudinal survey data from the Welfare, Children, and Families project (1999, 2001) to examine the association between perceived neighborhood disorder and self-esteem among low-income urban women with children in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, testing for city heterogeneity. Building on social disorganization theory and previous research, we examine the mediating influence of social support. Our longitudinal models show that higher levels of disorder at baseline are associated with lower levels of social support and self-esteem. We also observe that increases in disorder over the study period are associated with concurrent losses in social support and self-esteem. Our mediation analyses suggest that perceived neighborhood disorder may undermine self-esteem by limiting opportunities for social support. Reducing signs and perceptions of disorder by improving the social and physical landscapes of neighborhoods may uniquely contribute to self-worth of low-income urban women with children.
Despite policies aimed at decreasing old-age income inequality, such as Social Security and Supplemental Security Income, research consistently finds that later-life poverty is highly concentrated among women. While the early-life economic disadvantages of motherhood are well established, little work has examined whether these disadvantages persist into later life. Life course research consistently demonstrates the relationship between early-life choices and later-life inequality, but few studies have examined whether the reproductive phase of a woman's life is associated with her later-life income. Using data from the 2003 wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women cohort, this research examines whether women's age at first birth and parity are associated with her later-life income within the context of marriage. From a set of multivariate analyses, I find that despite a marginal statistically significant effect, substantively for the women in this cohort the effects of childbearing are not particularly consequential for later-life income. The results suggest that as women age the economic penalties associated with motherhood are less important to financial well-being than are other factors.
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