The Unique Agency of Parenting-Strivers: An Anti-Deficit, Asset-Based Exploration of Black and Latinx Students with Children

Abstract

Research, as well as mainstream culture, may be too quick to label parenting young people of color (which we define as being under or near the age of 20 when having a child) as delinquent and “at risk”. Using qualitative data, we offer anti-deficit framing surrounding students of color with children, highlighting the unique achievements of a set of “parent-strivers” despite the natural challenges of unexpectant parenthood. Our findings suggest that the parenting and academic identities of low-income people of color can be mutually beneficial and reinforced through positive schooling influences; we challenge the idea that education becomes a secondary priority after one becomes a parent. This paper answers the call for a better “articulation of agency” within exclusionary institutions. It contributes a rare acknowledgment of positive family outcomes to offset the concept of risk monopolizing the field and leaving us without support-oriented thinking.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all the mothers and fathers for participating in this study and for sharing their stories and experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The second author of this paper was included due to her vast knowledge and scholarship around parenting students in higher education so that our writing, and specifically the Literature Review, could be strengthened. The third author was an undergraduate student of the first author and contributed largely to the structural organization of this paper. They each made important contributions to the development of this paper.