A Psychosocial View of Mental Illness: An Introduction to Part II

Increasingly, grandmothers are parenting grandchildren in homes where parental presence is sporadic or nonexistent. A disproportionate percentage of African American grandparents fall in this category. The author reviews the literature on the African American grandmother in the context of the African American family and describes a practice model for service provision to those women who seek support as they “parent again.”     

Motherhood Motivations: African Refugee Women Resettled in Australia and Return Visits to a Country of First Asylum

This article expands on conceptualizations of refugee “return” by examining why African women resettled as refugees in Australia return to visit the country of first asylum from which they were previously resettled. I show that their return visits do not relate to attachment to place, but are motivated by social obligations to practise “motherhood” to family members who, due to conflict‐induced displacement, remain in a country of first asylum. I argue that the phenomenon of refugee “return” cannot be conflated exclusively with return to country of origin but is, for African women in particular, centred on the reinvigoration of care relationships across diasporic settings of asylum in which family remain. Building on an emergent focus on feminization in migration studies, I show how these gendered dynamics of refugee “return” are an entry point from which to re‐consider how scholarship and policy take into account “family” in contexts of forced migration.     

LOOKING FOR “MR. RIGHT”: THE VIABILITY OF MARRIAGE INITIATIVES FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN RURAL SETTINGS

Newly-funded initiatives aim to promote marriage among low-income African American women to reduce poverty and welfare dependency. Research indicates that these women have a strong desire to marry, but lack economically secure marriage partners. This research predominantly focuses on urban populations, and little is known about marriage as a strategy to end poverty and welfare dependency among the rural poor. Two case study counties in rural Mississippi were selected to examine if marriage promotion initiatives are a viable strategy for poor rural African American single mothers. Data were collected through semistructured interviews using a life history calendar procedure. The results show that, like their urban counterparts, poor rural single mothers are rarely able to find their “Mr. Right” because of their personal and contextual characteristics.     

Single Mothers “Do” Family

This paper explores how single mothers both incorporate others into family life (e.g., when they ask others to care for their children) and simultaneously “do families” in a manner that holds out a vision of a “traditional” family structure. Drawing on research with White, rural single mothers, the author explores the manner in which these women both endorse their children’s attachment to other caregivers and maintain boundaries around issues of discipline and attachment vis‐à‐vis these others. The author demonstrates that single mothers are willing to share this protected realm of family life with a new man (a fiancé or cohabiting boyfriend) as they pursue the goal of what has been called the “Standard North American Family.”     

The Risk of Partner Violence Among Low‐Income Hispanic Subgroups

Women with few social resources are at elevated risk of partner abuse. Certain evidence suggests that African American and Hispanic women, who are overrepresented in the lower socioeconomic strata, are at particularly high risk. We compare women's risk of partner violence, defined as moderate and severe, among 2,400 low‐income African American, Hispanic, and non‐Hispanic Whites from “Welfare, Children and Families: A Three City Study” and find that these groups differ in their risk of degrees of violence. Specific nation‐of‐origin Hispanic subgroups also manifest important differences in their violence risk profiles. We argue that a better understanding of victimization requires more detailed ethnic categorization and a more refined understanding of the meaning of domestic violence for different groups.     

African American Informal Support Networks

Abstract

This study examined African American informal support network functioning utilizing Vaux's (1998) reciprocal exchange model. Ten African American caregivers of relatives with severe mental illness and their main informal helpers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. In 8 of the 10 African American families interviewed, one close relative, called a “main supporter,” assumed major responsibility, comparable to that of the primary caregiver, for care and supervision of the family member with mental illness. Main supporters felt that their family helper role, although stressful at times, gave meaning and purpose to their lives. Five main supporter-primary caregiver pairs formed 'joint households' to share economic and human resources and to facilitate caregiving duties. Social work intervention for caregiving families should provide assistance to both primary caregivers and their informal supporters, particularly main supporters.     

“It's Hardly Fair to Bring a Child Into the World With the Way Things Look…”: Anomie,Mistrust, and the Impact of Race,SES, and Gender

This article examines the impact of race, socioeconomic status (SES ), and gender on subjective outlook using anomie and general mistrust as indicators. Specifically, this study addresses the following questions: (1) How do African Americans and whites compare with respect to anomie and mistrust? (2) Do racial differences in anomie and mistrust vary by SES ? (3) Do African American women have higher levels of anomie and mistrust than whites and African American men? and (4) Are African Americans becoming more or less trusting and anomic over time? Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) (1972–2014), the analysis reveals significant racial differences in social outlook as measured by anomie and mistrust. African Americans indicate higher levels of both anomie and mistrust than whites even after controls for SES and the other variables. The racial gap in anomie and mistrust increases with increases in SES . Being African American and female is associated with higher levels of anomie but not mistrust. African American mistrust decreases relative to whites over time. More affluent African Americans’ anomie levels slightly increase relative to similar whites over time. Explanations using the “rage of a privileged class” and “intersectionality” ideas are evaluated.     

De‐Romanticizing Black Intergenerational Support: The Questionable Expectations of Welfare Reform

Past research suggests that despite the substantial strengths of Black kin networks, they are not always up to the task of supporting young mothers. This study is an analysis of potential barriers to women‐centered kin support for present‐day urban Black teen mothers and possible implications for kin support mandates specified in the 1996 federal welfare reforms. In‐depth interviews with African American midlife women, who themselves were teen mothers, shed light on their attitudes and perceptions about Black kinship systems and teen childbearing. Study results suggest that these women perceive governmental intervention, age‐condensation among urban Black families, and urban “underclass” culture to have undermined traditional Black intergenerational support.     

Linking Housing,Social Services and Family Well-Being

Abstract

Securing adequate housing is a key component in achieving family well-being and a decent quality of life. It is expected that as many as twenty percent of the families currently on welfare, many of whom are disproportionately female and African American, may not be employable by the end of their lifetime benefit. These families, classified as “hard-to-serve” or “hard-to-employ,” are headed by an adult who may be struggling with substance abuse, physical or mental health problems, as well as low literacy and social competency issues that inhibit achieving self-sufficiency. This author will examine existing literature on welfare-dependent households coping with substance abuse and mental health problems, and how the lack of affordable housing impacts their ability to achieve self-sufficiency. This article presents a case study     

Marginalizing the Self: A Study of Citizenship,Color, and Ethnoracial Identity in American Society

From 1870 to 1952, naturalization legislation in the United States of America restricted citizenship to “free white persons” and “persons of African nativity” or “African descent.” Individuals categorized as “members of the Mongolian race” or as of neither “free white” nor “African descent or nativity” were excluded from membership in the American political community and designated “aliens ineligible for citizenship in the United States.” Examination of the appellate and Supreme Court adjudications of these matters reveals a juridical rhetoric that functioned to marginalize all those declared ineligible for civic status. Although the reasoning process employed by the courts was not dissimilar from that arising whenever individual disparate aggregates must be classified according to a limited set of categories, in the situations under study, it produced and legitimated an invidious hierarchy of peoples, a race-prejudicial sense of vertical group position, and a fundamental departure from the universalistic and individualistic claims that defended America as a thoroughgoing civil society.     

A trilogy of trepidation: Diverse perspectives on police violence targeting African American males

ABSTRACT

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are supposedly “certain inalienable rights” that the Declaration of Independence claims have been gifted to all human beings by their Creator, and for which the U.S. government was created to protect. The issue of violence and brutality against African American males along with the police shooting of unarmed African American males has become a reality of the denial of these rights for some in America. Recent police shooting incidents of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, in addition to the brutal murder by police of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, have sparked riots, looting, protests, “die-ins,” and national conversations. The subsequent civil unrest across the United States and abroad has attracted widespread public attention. In this article, three authors respond by providing a timely trilogy of uniquely diverse perspectives and viewpoints on these issues giving particular attention to (1) the view from a historical lens and Black Power political framework producing an analysis of the causative factors promoting and sustaining violence against African American males, (2) an examination of criminal justice law, and (3) a look at our way forward.     

A growing tradition?

This article develops a basic knowledge of African American family foundations from which additional research can be generated. It addresses the following questions: From what types of professional backgrounds do the founders of African American family foundations hail? In which areas of the country are African American family foundations located? What is the range of assets possessed by African American family foundations, and how are these assets managed? How do African American family foundations use board members, employees, and volunteers to support their organizations? What are the overarching goals of African American family foundations? And in what areas are they concentrating their donations?     

Return Migrations of African‐Americans to the South: Reclaiming a Land of Promise,Going Home,or Both?*

Abstract Using samples of census data from the University of Minnesota Population Center's “Integrated Public Use Microdata Series” (IPUMS), we describe trends in African‐American migration to the South across recent decades, and explore the applicability of the concept of “return migration” to various demographic patterns. Our findings suggest that the return movement contains multiple migration streams involving African‐Americans of higher socio‐economic status (compared with both origin and destination populations) moving to both urban and rural destinations. These patterns represent clear differences from the earlier 20^th century's “Great Migration” of African‐Americans from South to North. The recent return migration streams suggest that the South may be replacing the North as a “land of promise” for some upwardly mobile African‐Americans, and may also reflect what Carol Stack (1996) has termed a “call to home” as a motivating factor shaping recent African‐American migration to the rural South.     

Factors That Facilitate Relationship Entry Among Married and Cohabiting African Americans

This article examines whether social class differences influences low-income, married and cohabiting African Americans to realize that they are in a “coupled” relationship. To determine the extent to which social class influences the assessment of “couple” status in these partnerships, we examined the qualitative responses of 30 cohabiting and 31 married African Americans to a question regarding the specific event in their relationship that made them realize they were a couple. Qualitative analyses of the data resulted in four delineated themes: (1) relationship marker, (2) affection/sex, (3) having or rearing children, and (4) time and money. Supporting qualitative data are presented in connection with each theme. The sociological aspects of income on African American romantic relationships are also discussed.     

Public relations and cultural aesthetics: designing health brochures

Brochures continue to be one of the most common tools available to health public relations practitioners. However, few studies have focused on the best ways to design health brochures for minority publics. Yet statistics show that African Americans and members of other minority publics suffer higher incidences of mortality from many diseases than do Caucasians. This two-part study examines ways to better design brochures to appeal to African American women. The study reveals that African American women prefer designs that reflect their cultural aesthetics. Part one of this study identifies a number of preferred design characteristics. Part two of this study tests the effectiveness of a culturally tailored brochure that advocates mammography screening. Results indicate that the brochures promoted significant gains in knowledge about breast cancer and mammography screening, a positive shift in perceived benefits of mammography, and a reduction in perceived barriers to getting mammograms. The brochure was preferred over standard “off the shelf” brochures that are not culturally tailored.     

Signifyin' Cinema: Rudy Ray Moore and the Quality of Badness

This article engages the limits of both film and race studies in their approach to heterogeneous and “low” forms of African American cultural production through an analysis of the films of Rudy Ray Moore. While Moore’s films have been almost entirely overlooked in both film studies and black studies, they were extremely popular among black youth of the 1970s and have exerted a powerful influence on today’s hardcore hip hop artists (and their understanding of how to turn black market entrepreneurship into global enterprise). The theory of “signifying”, advanced most rigorously by black literary theorist Henry Louis Gates Jr, helps explain how and why Moore has slipped through various critical nets — and grounds a claim for why we should take “bad” black film seriously. Close film and context analysis illustrates how Moore’s low‐budget films “signify” on Hollywood and the system of expectancies that go with putatively “good” filmmaking and reveals the extent to which they constitute a hybrid cultural and multimedia practice. As vehicles designed to elaborate on the badman of black folklore, Moore’s films contribute to the long history and rich language of “toasting” in African American oral culture and music. As such, far from being emblematic of black filmmaking’s impoverished relationship to mainstream cinema (as a cinema manqué), these films constitute vital precursors to the hip hop music video.     

Covering the Dawsons: Racial Variation in Newspaper Framing of Urban Crime

This article uses newspaper coverage of a case from Baltimore, Maryland, to explore racial variation in the rhetorical framing of urban crime. In October 2002, seven members of the Dawson family were murdered in a house fire. The murders became an expression of Baltimore’s character and the lives of its residents. After analyzing 206 newspaper articles about the case, we find stark differences in the way the case, its causes, and its consequences are presented to readers. Newspapers with primarily white audiences—both “mainstream” and “alternative” papers—present the case as a horrific, singular instance, placing responsibility on the perpetrator. In contrast, articles in African American newspapers offer a complex web of explanation, calling attention to the structural inequalities and disparate access to state resources. Whereas white newspaper portray the Dawson family as martyrs in the drug war, black newspapers position the family as part of a wider of community of African Americans who are victims of slack policing, racial discrimination, and negligent social policy. We argue that these rhetorical differences are more than cosmetic. Rather, they provide a framework for better understanding the relationship between the press and policy makers. Differences in coverage of the case also contribute to our understanding of why blacks and whites have fundamentally different understandings of race in the United States.     

Racial and ethnic differences in patterns of adolescent tobacco users: A latent class analysis

BackgroundLittle is known about how tobacco use varies among youth of different racial and ethnic groups and how these patterns are related to levels of nicotine dependence.ObjectivesThis study investigated the tobacco use patterns of White, African American, and Hispanic high school students. We further explored whether tobacco use patterns were associated with levels of nicotine dependence and gender.MethodsData were analyzed from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) of high school students who endorsed at least one form of tobacco use in their lifetime (n = 4691). Three separate latent class analysis (LCA) models were estimated using seven different types of tobacco products as indicators. Also, the level of nicotine dependence was compared with one class to another class in three racial/ethnicity groups.ResultsFour classes of White youth were identified: (1) “Non-user” (67%), (2) “Polytobacco” (6%), (3) “Chewing Tobacco” (8%), and (4) “(E-)Cigarettes” (19%) classes. The “Polytobacco” class had the highest nicotine dependence followed by “Chewing Tobacco,” “(E-)cigarettes,” and “Non-user.” Among African American youth, two tobacco patterns were identified: “Non-user” (91%) and “Cigarette/Cigar” (9%). The “Cigarette/Cigar” class had greater nicotine dependence than the “Non-user” class. Among Hispanic youth, three subgroups were identified: “Non-user” (78%), “(E-)Cigarette/Cigar” (14%), and “Hookah” (18%). “(E)Cigarette/cigar” had the highest nicotine dependence in Hispanic youth followed by the “Hookah” and “Non-users” classes.ConclusionWe found distinct classes of youth tobacco use by race/ethnicity. Although poly-tobacco use was common, White, African American, and Latino youth used different tobacco types, suggesting that racially and ethnically targeted prevention strategies may be indicated.     

Research Note: Religious Affiliation and Poverty Explanations: Individual,Structural, and Divine Causes

Abstract

Prior studies of people's explanations for poverty have relied upon individual, structural, and fatalistic explanations. This paper explores an additional explanation for poverty, divine intervention. Using a sample of 360 college students, I show that divine intervention is a distinct explanation for poverty. I then examine if or how six religious groups—conservative, African American, and mainline Protestants, Catholics, the nonaffiliated, and those with “other” beliefs—differ in their views of individual, structural, and divine explanations for poverty. Results show that members of conservative Protestant denominations are more individualistic than Catholics and the nonaffiliated. African American Protestants were significantly more structuralist than conservative Protestants. African American Protestants are more likely than conservative Protestants, and both are more likely than Catholics, the nonaffiliated, and those with “other” beliefs, to believe that divine intervention is an important explanation for poverty.