Black Families

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Harold E. Cheatham, James B. Stewart

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351316309
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

The condition and characteristics of the black family have been subjects of intense debate since at least the 1960s, when the Moynihan Report and the culture of poverty theses held sway. Since then a consistent theme has been that black families are pathological. Despite the fact that research has been inconclusive and contradictory, political debate and policy have been strongly influenced by the pathology theme. This volume presents alternative approaches toward understanding the special characteristics of black families. Extending a special issue of The Review of Black Political Economy, the book focuses on the economic circumstances and decision making of these families, employing Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives. It examines the general responses of black families to various external factors such as economic systems, and to Internal factors such as interpersonal relationships. This compendium of current thinking and research will be of interest to professionals in a number of fields, Including family studies, counseling, social work, psychology, and sociology. It will be of practical use in training programs for service delivery systems Interested In Incorporating multicultural perspectives, as well as those specifically interested in black families today.

Part III

Family Form and Functioning

INTRODUCTION

In this section we shift our attention from a focus on sociosctructural issues and black families to internal dynamics of black family development and functioning. The treatment continues, however, in the tradition of the ecological models advocated by Du Bois, Frazier, and Billingsley. One of the concerns of both Du Bois and Frazier was the role of values and coping mechanisms in shaping patterns of family formation and functioning.

The chapters in this section examine this issue from two critical perspectives. First, the process by which values are transmitted between generations is examined in the context of stresses produced in black families’ interaction with other societal subsystems. Second, the extent to which values affect responses of black males and females to demographic constraints imposed on black families’ formation by the shortage of black males is explored.

Spencer’s analysis examines whether stress produced by the Atlanta child murders affected parental values, beliefs, and child-rearing strategies. Spencer examines the extent to which observed patterns differed depending on the availability of socioeconomic resources. Consistent with the ecological framework, she finds that the additional stress resulting from the Atlanta child murders was a much less important contributor to adverse child-rearing outcomes than was daily stress resulting from ongoing “socioeconomic or caste status-related stress.” She also finds that single-parenting undermines optimum child development outcomes as a result of restricted access to socioeconomic resources. At the same time, Spencer emphasizes that similarities persist in “espoused child rearing values and beliefs … among African-American parents independent of economic resources.” She concludes the analysis with a discussion of ways in which some black parents have been successful in neutralizing the effects of continuing stress on parenting, including involvement in the black church.

Slaughter and Dilworth-Anderson examine the special adaptations required to neutralize the stress resulting from caring for victims of childhood sickle cell anemia. The chapter describes the extended kin relations used by female-headed, nuclear, and multigenerational black families to care for middle school-aged black children with sickle cell disease. The ecological perspective is evidenced by the finding that upon learning that their child had sickle cell disease all but one of the families studied were “confronted with the problem of educating themselves and other extended families members about the disease, as they were victims of not knowing about an essential aspect of their sociocultural heritage and of not having available trusted supportive community institutions and groups around them to help them solve their problems.”

Cazenave and Smith explore the effects of negative stereotypes about black men and women on relationships. Their discussion begins with an analysis of the sociohistorical etiology of negative stereotypes about black males and females. The analysis of the empirical data suggests significant patterns of acceptance of negative stereotypes by both black men and women. Consistent with the ecological model, the authors find that respondents who hold negative stereotypes about black men or black women are less likely to report being adversely affected by racism and tend to report that blacks don’t take advantage of available opportunities. Drawing upon the sociohistorical insights and the patterns that emerge from their data, Cazenave and Smith conclude with suggestions for cultivating more positive perceptions, within black men and women, about black male-female relationships.

Williams addresses the issue of the scarcity of black males—an issue with which Du Bois grappled. Through a careful presentation of existing empirical evidence the reality of the worsening sex ratio is documented. Williams evaluates a particular strategy for dealing with problems emanating from the declining pool of available black marriageable men and black women’s desires for conjugal bonds, i.e., polygyny. He concludes, through an extended discussion of the changes in mating patterns and values which blacks have experienced across time that polygyny is not a viable or a desirable strategy for ameliorating the problem.

6

PARENTAL VALUES TRANSMISSION: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHILDREN

Margaret Beale Spencer

Data from African-American children and their parents were obtained at two different time periods separated by three years. There were two major patterns of findings. First, an extreme level of environmental stress was associated with fewer adverse outcomes than the ongoing or mundane level of socioeconomic or caste status-related stress. Second, single-parenting efforts often exacerbate optimum child development outcomes, since single-parenting efforts were correlated with lower socioeconomic status. Social class differences emerged as a significant factor affecting the parent’s ability to identify and utilize available child-rearing resources. An important social class-related conclusion was that similarities in espoused child-rearing values and beliefs exist among African-American parents independent of economic resources. The assumed effect of “different values” is the often touted explanation for the adverse life-course outcomes of many economically disadvantaged persons. However, the findings suggest many similarities in child-rearing values across social class lines.

INTRODUCTION

As used by cultural anthropologists, the term enculturation refers to the specific ways in which human infants and children learn to become adult members of a particular society. Human infants, according to cultural anthropologists, develop into competent or efficacious adults only through being reared in a human and humane society. Enculturation plays a salient role in the process. Each infant grows into a particular kind of human—rather than simply as human. Accordingly, becoming human reflects (a) a complex interaction between universal human capacities and culturally varying child-rearing practices, (b) individual heredity, and (c) the common experiences patterned by the culture.¹ There remains little research on the content of child-rearing practices, strategies, and processes for oppressed minority group families.

The experiences created by the majority (Caucasian) American culture for minorities (vis-à-vis social policies) result in discontinuities between what is (a) expected (in the long run), (b) recognized as important, and (c) reinforced for African-Americans versus concomitant expectations, perceptions, and reinforcements made available to non-minority group citizens. Further, and much more consequential as regards individual group members’ motivation, the evaluations and analyses of inconsistencies, successes, and failures as outcomes for each group are applied differently. In fact, recent research contributions and theoretical statements by Ogbu, Garbarino, and Muga illustrate the point.² Together their perspectives propose the following: (a) each suggests very different ecosystem or environmental experiences for African-American children and youth versus those for nonminority youth; (b) each interprets the environment as a potential or actual source of stress and risk; and (c) each suggests the critical role of the nation’s economic history and its fluctuations for understanding current experiences of race and ethnicity along with associated expectations, constraints, and supports for minorities, in particular.

We introduce the term castelike minorities to emphasize the structural groups in the United States. In stratification, people are assigned to their particular groups by birth—e.g., according to skin color. The individual generally has few opportunities or options to escape the derogation associated with the designation or stratification. Unlike castelike minorities, immigrant minorities usually enter the host society more or less voluntarily. Although initially lacking power and a clear comprehension of the depreciated value associated with their status, the relevant “other” for evaluating current experiences is “the homeland.” Autonomous minorities, according to Ogbu, do not experience stratification, although they may experience some prejudice.³ Importantly, their separateness is not based on a degraded, specialized economic or political status. Although the concept of castelike minorities is helpful, at least for the North American situation, there is significant diversity of outcomes within groups that would not be expected for the traditional caste situation.⁴ The issues of social class diversity and skin color variation make the traditional assumptions by Ogbu less than reliable when applied to the unique American situation of race-inspired oppression.⁵

Until the latter part of the 1970s, few researchers studied the developmental processes of African-American children’s group identity formation, associated parental strategies employed for the rearing of competent children, and the specific parental values that required transmission. Instead, at least up until that point, the literature continued to abound with assumptions that lacked both a developmental perspective and general empirical validation for the assumptions concerning the group identity construct.⁶ Our research findings suggest the importance of linking parental child-rearing strategies to social class and child outcomes.

The present study’s goal has several component sections: (a) to delineate differences in behavioral problems and competencies as a function of one’s proximity to a major stressor (the Atlanta child murders), (b) to determine the relationship between socioeconomic status and behavioral outcomes, and (c) to examine differences in parental values, beliefs, and child-rearing strategies as a function of the availability of socioeconomic resources.

The background for the study is supported by several premises that guide our interpretation of research findings on parental child-rearing beliefs and values.

First, as viewed by Garbarino and Wynn, the status of American childhood and youth is coupled with or linked to at-risk conditions that undermine its optimum development and exists independent of socioeconomic stratification.⁷

Second, the fact of minority status only exacerbates or worsens the at-risk status of children. More specifically, as supported by Pierce’s research and clinical observations, minority children live under conditions of daily or mundane levels of stress.⁸ According to Muga and Baron, much of the mundane or daily stress experienced is exacerbated by economic constraints and policies that generate institutionalized stress for all minorities—especially the historically oppressed groups (African-Americans, American Indians, and Hispanic Americans).⁹

Third, Jordan suggests that, in its structuring of the family microsystem, parenting may play a buffering r...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction and Context
• I Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives
• II Ecological Perspectives
• III Family Form and Functioning
• IV Health Outcomes and Economic Resources
• V Intracultural Perspectives
• VI Policy and Social Service Delivery Systems
• Retrospective and Exegesis: Black Families Reconceptualized
• About the Editors and Contributors