The influences of public housing, caregiver fear of crime, and collective efficacy on messages caregivers relay to their offspring regarding coping with community and peer violence were examined using a 3‐wave prospective design. Caregivers ( N = 358; 92% African American/Black) living in moderate to high violence areas of a midsized southern city completed face‐to‐face interviews. Coping suggestions were coded at Wave 3 from audiotaped responses to a vignette measure depicting five neighborhood‐based and five school‐based situations involving violence or aggression. Path models indicated that residing in public or Section 8 housing was associated with greater fear of crime and lower collective efficacy. Fear of crime was associated with more suggestions to use active coping strategies for neighborhood‐based situations involving violence; collective efficacy was associated with messages to use less aggression for school‐based situations. These findings extend our understanding of caregiver socialization of coping processes in poor and underresourced neighborhoods.