The strength of Black families: A commentary on Leading with Racial Equity

ABSTRACT

This commentary provides an overview of resilience in the Black family. It also offers a reflection on important work in this issue assessing the historical and future-oriented conceptualization of Black families in the social welfare system. A research program spanning an investigation of low-income Black families to theoretical and intervention development is also provided. The commentary concludes with a call to increase the number of researchers and the quality of research in this area to improve the lived experiences and well-being of Black families.     

Empowerment:

It has been twenty years since Robert Hill's seminal research on Black family strengths revolutionized the perceptions, attitudes and modalities related to the coping abilities of Black people. His findings were instrumental in effecting changes in a body of knowledge from one that focused on a monolithic, ethnocentric deficit model to one that affirmed strengths within an historical, culturally diverse conceptual framework. Much of the information available is theoretically based on the Euro-centric worldview resulting in limited use, acceptance and credibility among social work practitioners, social policy analysts and social work academicians. This paper revisits the literature relative to the strengths of Black families. Utilizing recent works of Billingsley (1990), Boyd-Franklin (1989) and others, the strengths of Black families will be re-examined for the purposes of comparing Hill's strength model with the contemporary model of African-American families and its implications for social work education, practice and policy. Additionally, new imperatives are described that possibly will insure African-Americans greater power and control over life situations in the decade of the 90s and into the twenty-first century.     

Paternal dimensions and complexities: Understanding the relationships between parental dyads and fathers’ involvement among Black fathers with criminal records

ABSTRACT

The benefits of fathers’ involvement in their children’s lives are well documented. However, the effect of incarceration, especially among Black families, has contributed to disbanded family bonds. Spells of incarceration disrupt family relationships and having a criminal record, results in formerly incarcerated men being jobless and unable to financially contribute to their families. Fatherhood encompasses more than being the sole household income earner and father involvement is complex, particularly, within contemporary family structures (Jones & Mosher, 2013). Incarceration, especially, among Black fathers has been associated with family dissolution and reduced financial wellbeing (Oliver, 2001; Roberts, 2004; Western & Wildemann, 2009).This study analyzed factors associated with fathers’ involvement with their children among Black fathers with criminal records. Fathers’ involvement was conceptualized using Lamb, Pleck, and Levine’s (1985) Threefold Typology, which included fathers’ level of engagement, accessibility, and responsibility with their children. These three components of father involvement were the dependent variables. This study utilized secondary analysis of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (FFCW) or “Fragile Families” study. Among Black fathers with criminal records, this study explored relationships among fathers’ involvement, sociodemographic characteristics, and parental dyads. This study found variations among factors associated with three dimensions of father involvement.     

Head Start Impact on Fathers’ Involvement and Black Children’s Development

ABSTRACT

This study examined Head Start’s impact on fathers’ school-based involvement and associations with Black children's cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional skills. With a sample of 1,354 Black children, fathers’ involvement was measured as attendance at school meetings, teacher conferences, school events, and/or volunteering at school events. Children’s cognitive skills were literacy, language, and mathematics scores. Parents reported on the parent–child relationship, children’s social skills, and behavioral concerns. Non-resident fathers in Head Start were more involved in Black children’s schooling than not enrolled in Head Start. Unexpectedly, fathers’ school-based involvement and Head Start enrollment were not related to children’s developmental outcomes at kindergarten age. Head Start serving impoverished Black families should consider implementing targeted school-based father involvement initiatives that directly influence children.     

Family Resilience Resources in Coping With Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa

The aim of this qualitative study was to identify resources of family resilience that help families cope with child sexual abuse. Data were collected from a purposeful sample of parents representing nine poor families living in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. The narratives of the participants were analyzed thematically. The results indicate that the families, despite adverse situations, utilized internal and external resilience resources. Internal resources were the parents’ relationship with their children, their own emotional functioning and attitudes, the children’s ability to cope with the abuse, boundaries in the family, insight into their children’s emotional needs, and sibling relationships. External family resources were the support of extended family members, friends, and a local community-based nonprofit organization working with child sexual abuse and schools. The empowering role of the identified resources for family resilience should be enhanced in interventions, while future studies could further explore these aspects in families confronted with child sexual abuse.     

Narratives of exile twenty years on: long-term impacts of Indonesia’s 1998 violence on transnational Chinese-Indonesian women

ABSTRACT

In response to Indonesia’s 1998 riots, which included mass rape of Chinese-Indonesian women, many Chinese-Indonesian families sent their daughters out of country to try and ensure their safety. Drawing on interviews with Chinese-Indonesian women currently living in Singapore and Australia, this article considers the long-term effects on transnational families of this departure. In contrast to current views of Chinese-Indonesians as an affluent diaspora, we show Chinese-Indonesian women’s experience to be that of exile, living outside Indonesia with little possibility of permanent return. We illuminate the subtle and enduring effects of political violence on women’s marital, reproductive, and childrearing practices. Interviews reveal fragmented identities and contingent household formations which enabled family resilience for some but created long-term fissures for the majority. We argue for more critical attention to how gender mutually constitutes experiences of exile, and the long-term impacts of political violence on reproduction and family relations for Chinese-Indonesian women.     

Examining risk,strengths, and functioning of foster families: Implications for strengths-based practice

ABSTRACT

Foster families provide safe and stable homes for children and youth who are removed from their homes due to maltreatment. Despite the stressors associated with bringing children in and out of a family’s home, many maintain healthy family functioning and continue fostering for many years serving an essential function in the child welfare system. This study sought to understand the factors that explained higher levels of family functioning within foster families. Collaborating with one statewide public child welfare agency, 681 licensed foster parents participated in an online survey that examined the association between family functioning with family strengths and risk factors. Findings from this study can inform strengths-based practice including training, assessment, and interventions for new and existing foster families to strengthen families and improve the well-being of children and youth in their care.     

Black women’s experience of colorist microaggressions

ABSTRACT

This paper reports the findings of a study that investigated Black women’s experiences of colorism. The authors introduce a new framework, “colorist microaggressions”, which highlight the microaggressions experienced by Black women. The results indicate that colorist microaggressions impacted the social, relational, emotional, and relational aspects of Black women’s lives and their well-being. The results also showed that like racial microaggressions, the “colorist microaggressions” that Black women encountered in their community, family, and in society, were pervasive. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for social work research, education, and practice.     

Children’s Economic Well‐Being in Married and Cohabiting Parent Families

Increasingly, children are living with cohabiting parents. Prior work on the material well‐being of children living in cohabiting families is extended by including the biological relationship of children to adults, examining the racial and ethnic variations, and investigating the multiple indicators of material well‐being. We draw on the 1999 National Survey of America’s Families (N =34,509). Our findings suggest that children can potentially benefit from living with a cohabiting partner whose resources are shared with family members. Although children living with married rather than cohabiting parents fare better in terms of material well‐being, this advantage is accounted for by race and ethnic group and parents’ education. Marriage appears to provide more material advantages to White children than to Black or Latino children.     

Family preservation and child protection: The reality of Children's Court decision-making

Abstract

Ainsworth and Maluccio (Australian Social Work, December 1998) drew attention to the increased use of kinship care for children who need care away from their parents. This paper discusses the aim of family preservation, on which kinship care is predicated, and the challenges for legal decision-makers to meet this aim when children are before the courts in need of care and protection. It draws from findings of a study of magistrates' decision-making in child protection cases (Sheehan 1999). The paper provides examples of family situations that typically confront the Children's Court in Victoria and the court's response to them as it attempts to balance the importance of family ties and the reality of risk for a child; a reality that challenges valued beliefs about families and their ability to always care for their children.     

Creating a Family Centered Wellness Team: Lessons learned in creating an integrated continuum of care for families facing homelessness,addiction, and trauma recovery.

Abstract

Homelessness is often experienced by women and children, and recent evidence suggests that women and children are the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. Homelessness is often accompanied by mental illness, substance abuse, and histories of violence, for both women and their children. While trauma informed care has been incorporated into women's treatment systems there has not been widespread application of this knowledge to family centered work with homeless families. This paper explores the need for family strengthening approaches and identifies one model currently being evaluated that seeks to decrease service fragmentation, increase positive family interaction, and deepen the family's connections with each other and with the community.     

Childhood Obesity Differences in Single-Father and Single-Mother Families

ABSTRACT

Prior research consistently finds that children living in two-parent families are less likely to be obese than children in single-parent families. Most of the research that explores the relationship between family structure and childhood obesity is limited in its conceptualization of family structure, however, either ignoring single-father families or bunching them in the same category as single-mother families. Research on gender and families suggests that single fathers are different from single mothers in ways that may influence a child’s risk of obesity. We use data from the kindergarten wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 to explore differences in obesity rates for young children in single-father and single-mother families. Compared to single mothers, single fathers earn more and provide a slightly healthier home environment (less TV watching and more sharing of meals) but are more likely to work outside the home full-time. Children in single-father families are also more likely to be white and have fewer siblings. These differences counteract one another, resulting in similar levels of obesity in these two types of single-parent families.     

The Role of Companion Animals Throughout the Family Life Cycle

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the roles that companion animals play in the lives of American families, and discusses how those roles change as families progress through the stages of the family life cycle. It highlights the importance of pets in the lives of children and the benefits they receive from such relationships. It also presents information regarding the role of a child that animals often assume within families that do not have children. This paper also discusses the impact that the death of a pet has on the family, and provides suggestions for social workers who assist families that have strong attachment to companion animals.     

Risk and Resilience Among African American Children of Incarcerated Parents

Abstract

The current literature indicates that children of incarcerated parents are negatively responding to parent-child separation and vulnerable to myriad adverse psychological, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. African American children are the most greatly impacted by this social issue as they account for over 50% of all children of incarcerated parents. Despite the risks, many of these youths appear to cope with parent-child separation. There is a paucity of literature that employs a risk and resilience conceptual model to explicate the variability in developmental trajectories. This article reviews the literature on risks and resilience among African American families. An interpersonal-ecological conceptual model that emphasizes the reciprocal interaction between the person and social context is employed. Moreover, African American resilient factors that potentially mediate the relationship between parental incarceration and environmental risks and developmental outcomes are discussed.     

Whose responsibility? Resilience in families of children with developmental disabilities

Families with children with disabilities are at higher risk of stress, financial disadvantage and breakdown. In recent decades, research and policy have shifted focus from these problems to a strengths-based approach, using concepts such as family resilience. By definition, resilience is the ability to cope in adverse circumstances, suggesting a reliance on the individual. If this is the case, then to what extent does ‘family resilience’ place another burden of responsibility onto families? Whose responsibility is family resilience? This paper begins to answer this question using interviews with parents of children with developmental disabilities based in New South Wales, Australia.     

How do you solve a problem like Maria? Family complexity and institutional complications in UK social work

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on UK data from an international, comparative project involving eight countries. The study examined how social workers’ conceptions and definitions of family impact on the way they engage with complex families, and how social policies that frame social work context impact on the way social workers engage with families. Focus groups were held in which social workers from four service areas (child welfare, addictions, mental health and migration) were asked to discuss a case vignette. Several factors were embedded in the vignette to represent a realistic situation a social worker may come across in their day-to-day work. Social workers clearly identified the complexity of the family’s situation in terms of the range of issues identified and candidate ‘causes’. However, typical first responses were institutional, looking for triggers that would signify certainty about their, or other agencies’ involvement. This resulted in a complicated story, through which the family was disaggregated into individual problem-service categories. This paper argues that understanding these processes and their consequences is critical for exploring the ways in which we might develop alternative, supportive professional responses with families with complex needs. It also demonstrates how organisational systems manifest themselves in everyday reasoning.     

Social Networks,Migration, and Care in Tanzania

This paper explores the impacts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on children and families in northern Tanzania using the concept of social resilience.1 1. This paper is based on a presentation entitled, “Social Networks, Migration and Care in Tanzania: Supporting Women, Children and Young People's Resilience,” prepared for the 2nd African Conference on the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research, International Convention Centre, Cape Town, May 9–12, 2004, organized by the Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa (see: www.sahara.org.za). View all notes The study is based on the findings of child-focused research with street children and children and families from HIV/AIDS-affected households. The paper illustrates the coping strategies that children and young people, and parents and caregivers adopt at the household level. In particular, it examines how the burden of care affects different generations of women and highlights their resilience, together with the importance of social networks and the fluidity of movement between rural and urban areas. The research suggests that migrating to urban areas to seek a living in the informal sector represents a survival strategy adopted by some children and young people orphaned by AIDS when their families and communities are unable or unwilling to support them. The paper concludes by exploring parents’, caregivers’, children's, and young people's views on the forms of social support that would promote their resilience and thereby help to mitigate the impacts of the epidemic at the household level.     

Multidimensional Resilience: Predictive and Construct Validity of the Individual,Family, and Community Resilience Profile

Few measures parallel the robust depth offered in the existing multidimensional and ecologically informed theories of resilience. This study sought to evaluate the test–retest reliability, construct, and predictive validity of the individual, family, and community resilience resource profile (IFCR-R). The IFCR-R measures a family’s access to resilience resources and protective factors across multiple ecological levels. Confirmatory factor analysis was used with a sample of n?=?810 low-income families. And 159 families completed multiple time point measures for test–retest reliability and predictive validity evaluation. Results of this study support the proposed multidimensional ecological structure of the IFCR-R and found that the IFCR-R offers an acceptable test–retest reliability and predictive validity for outcomes of mental and physical health.     

Direct and Indirect Effects of Interparental Relationship Quality on Child Behavior Problems in Low-Income,Black, Single-Mother Families

ABSTRACT

Evidence of direct and indirect effects of interparental relationship quality and parental contexts on child behavior problems is well established. However, limited literature exists about these associations in low-income, Black families in which the parents are not married. Informed by the risk and resilience theoretical perspective, this study hypothesized that disharmonious interparental relations would predict greater preschool child behavior problems directly and indirectly through maternal parenting factors and father contact. Economic difficulties and low maternal education would exacerbate these problems. This study included 2,115 Black, single mothers from Waves 1–3 of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study data sets. Using structural equation modeling, a strong model fit indicated that our hypotheses were supported. Discussion includes policy and practice implications related to the Healthy Marriage Initiative.