Husband's Characteristics and Marital Disruption in Black Families*

Throughout the 1960s and the 1970s a great deal of scholarly and popular literature has addressed the status of blacks in American society, some of it concerned with the stability of black family life. This paper, concerned with the relationship between husband's characteristics and marital disruption, focuses on 575 intact black families and identifies several factors associated with disruption. Although husband's age is the strongest bivariate predictor of marital disruption, husband's income is the most important predictor; and husband's employment problems and religiosity are also strong predictors. A causal model of marital disruption shows that education, employment and age at marriage influence marital disruption through their influence on income. Only age, income and religiosity had a significant direct effect.     

Congregate Housing for the Low and Moderate Income Elderly-A Needed Federal State Partnership

The doubling of the 85+ cohorts by the year 2000, and the further similar growth of the 75+ cohorts is causing a major health care crisis. Up to 40 percent of the elderly institutionalized may be inappropriately placed; a more effective approach, and options for home-based care are needed. Congregate housing is one major option for low and moderate income elderly, particularly for those living in Federal of locally-subsidized housing. The current, successful Congregate Housing Services Program should be ameded and expanded into a new Federal/State PARTNERSHIP for congregate housing.     

Vetting and Letting: Cohabiting Stepfamily Formation Processes in Low‐Income Black Families

The authors examined cohabiting union formation processes by analyzing in‐depth interview data collected from 30 individuals in cohabiting relationships: 15 low‐income Black mothers of adolescents and their partners. Prior research suggests that cohabiting union formation is a gradual, nondeliberative process. In contrast, most couples in this study described a gradual but highly deliberative process. Mothers focused primarily on vetting their partners to ensure child well‐being and less on when and how their partners officially came to live with them, a process the authors call vetting and letting. Mothers delineated 4 strategies to ensure their child's well‐being when vetting their partners, and their partners reported that they understood the importance of participating in this process. The authors argue that vetting and letting is a child‐centered family formation process, not a partner‐centered union formation process, and that cohabiting union processes may vary substantially by subpopulation.     

A Black and White Model for Teaching Family Therapy: Empowerment by Degree

In this article, I describe and reflect on the rationale, development and teaching of the first university‐based post‐graduate course in family therapy delivered to Aboriginal child, family and health workers. Alongside my Cultural Consultant, Shaun Coade, and with support from key staff at the Bouverie Centre in Melbourne, I developed and delivered the first four iterations of the La Trobe University Graduate Certificate in Family Therapy to Aboriginal students and a relatively small number of non‐Aboriginal students. Since 2008, the course has been successfully completed in six Victorian locations and is currently being delivered at Shepparton and in Cooktown, Queensland. The term, ‘Black and White’ was coined by Shaun and by the Aboriginal family therapy students to describe the delivery of a family therapy curriculum that meets mainstream University requirements while being embedded in Aboriginal culture and Aboriginal wisdom. A largely unanticipated bonus was the realisation that the model of teaching also has important implications for the mainstream teaching of family therapy. After providing a brief summary of enrolment and graduation rates, the article picks up on elements of the teaching and learning that proved to be central to the successful delivery of the course.     

Wife's Education and Urban Family Size in India: The Form of the Relationship

Abstract

The paper examines the net relationship between wife's education and completed family size based on data on 48,5 women, ages 40–49, from one city in India. The results indicate that wife's education has a curvilinear (inverted U) relationship with completed family size. Up to a threshold level of 4.4 years, an increase in wife's education results in larger completed family size; beyond this point it has a depressing effect on family size.     

Individual and Family Factors Related to Psychosocial Adjustment in Stepmother Families With Adolescents

This article presents additional data analyses from an earlier study on risk and resilience factors linked with adjustment in stepfamilies with adolescents. The primary objective addressed how individual and family-level factors impacted adjustment in a sample composed of 3 members (biological father, stepmother, and adolescent) from a subsample of 39 stepmother families. Multiple regression results showed that each stepmother family member's adjustment is affected by both shared and nonshared processes. Results also highlighted the role of triangulations and role ambiguity in the psychosocial adjustment of stepmother family members.     

Family Therapy and the Black Middle Class: A Neglected Area of Study*

Little has been written and virtually no empirical research has been presented concerning family therapy with members of the Black middle class. In this article, a number of factors are discussed in the light of recent sociological inquiries. These findings are discussed in terms of family systems theory in order to provide the clinician with some insights into the dynamics of family functioning in the Black community. Suggestions for working with these families are then offered. The question of whether White therapists can work effectively with Black families is discussed and the pertinent empirical findings available from the field of individual therapy are considered.     

Family Ties and the Discontinuity of Divorce in Black and White Newlywed Couples

This paper explores the relationship of family ties to the marital happiness of husbands and wives from intact and disrupted families of origin and to the likelihood that they will divorce by the 4th year of their marriage. Respondents were 199 Black and 173 White couples interviewed as part of the “Early Years of Marriage” study. Analyses showed differences in family connectedness according to whether the family of origin was disrupted, and some variations by race were also evident. Regression analyses revealed that among all spouses, but especially among wives from divorced families, increased closeness to their husbands' families predicted increased happiness in their marriages. Hazard models showed that when husbands' or wives' parents were divorced or separated, couples' closeness to the husbands' family reduced their risk of divorce. Findings are discussed in the context of family systems theory and gender roles related to the forging of links with kin networks.     

Mitigating Material Hardship: The Strategies Low‐Income Families Employ to Reduce the Consequences of Poverty*

Despite decades of research, little is known about the contours of material hardship and how the social processes underlying specific domains of hardship are similar and different. We use qualitative interview data to examine five different domains of material hardship: housing, bill‐paying, food, medical, and clothing hardships. While mothers use social program participation, reliance on social networks, and individual strategies to mitigate hardships, the dominance of these strategies and their specific applications differ across hardship domains. These results complement recent research that identifies each domain of hardship as unique and suggest that domain‐specific hardship mitigation approaches are necessary.     

A Contribution to the History of Family Therapy in Australia and New Zealand: A Bibliometric Perspective*

The content of the first ten volumes of The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy is analysed to provide a picture of the major themes and subject matter addressed in its formative years using the techniques of bibliometrics and content analysis. A methodology is developed for measuring the prevalence of subject content in the journal which could have application in other fields. The interdisciplinary character of family therapy is demonstrated by the diversity of cited end-of-article journal references. A list of most-cited journals is provided. The characteristics of authorship are discussed with respect to geographic dispersion, institutional affiliation, seniority and gender. The issue of collaborative authorship is discussed in relation to the patterns of co-authorship observed in this period, 1979–1989. The analysis identifies signs of the emergence of family therapy as a discrete field. The paper concludes also that there are positive signs of maturation of the journal. It offers some pointers about directions for the journal in the next phase ofits development.     

Family Communication and Messages about Race and Identity in Black Families in the United States

Racial minority families engage in “racial socialization,” the process by which individuals develop meaning and understanding of what race is, and its implications. While parents are often seen as the site of this socialization, we wanted to explore which racial socialization messages were salient for young adults, and from whom they received these messages. This paper utilized focus groups to explore messages that young Black adults received about race, and what this means for their racial identity. We identified three dominant themes in our analyses: (a) the content of familial messages regarding race, identity, and prejudice, (b) critical incidents that shaped individuals’ understandings of Black racial identity, and (c) familial sources. Each of these themes is constituted by various experiences and examples that shed light on racial socialization in today’s social climate. Overall, parents, extended family members, and community members were sources of socializing what race meant to young Black adults. We discuss implications for research on racial socialization and family communication.     

Desegregation in Higher Education: An Examination of Traditionally Black and White Institutions*

Using the data collection techniques of historical analysis, secondary analysis of EEO-6 records, mailed questionnaires, and personal interviews, race relations among trustees, administrators, and faculty in the southeastern United States were examined during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The conclusion that blacks at traditionally white institutions (TWI) (1) had more tenuous job status, (2) experienced less job satisfaction, (3) experienced greater degrees of institutional alienation, and (4) more often stated a need for affirmative action programs than did their white colleagues at the same institution will surprise no one. Similar patterns and perceptions were found for whites at traditionally black institutions (TBI) where whites were in the “minority.” Although whites at TBIs remained members of the societal majority group as traditionally defined in the sociology of intergroup relations, their position and perceptions within specific TBIs were remarkably similar to the experience of black professionals at TWIs. Some implications for policy are drawn.     

Whole Family Theraplay: Integrating Family Systems Theory and Theraplay to Treat Adoptive Families

This article regarding the effectiveness of Theraplay for the clinical treatment of adoptive families both outlines a model for integrating family systems theory with Theraplay to create a new approach entitled Whole Family Theraplay (WFT), as well as provides a preliminary report of a pilot study demonstrating the efficacy of that model. WFT integrates Theraplay with family systems approaches (Structural and Experiential Family Therapies) to treat parents and all the siblings within adoptive families. The findings indicate that WFT treatment may lead to statistically significant benefits in regard to family communication, adults’ interpersonal relationships, and children's overall behavioral functioning.     

Family Therapy with Black, Disadvantaged Families: Some Observations on Roles, Communication, and Technique

Within a system concept role delineation and communicational patterns of black, disadvantaged families are evaluated on the basis of 15 years experience. The observations made at best are suggestive and meant to highlight certain features of a black, disadvantaged family system. In the light of these observations some suggestions regarding technique are offered, notably the use of multiple family therapy as a way of increasing therapeutic effectiveness and facilitating movement in the system.     

Differential Mother and Father Influences on the Educational Attainment of Black and White Women*

This study examines the impacts of maternal and paternal influences on the educational attainment of women and whether these parental effects operate similarly for white and black women. Specifically, the study measures the differential effects of mother's and father's education, occupation, and encouragement. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience (NLS), 428 white and 145 black women were examined. Findings indicate different patterns in the way mothers and fathers affect their daughters' educational attainments. For both groups of women, father's education was found to be a generally better predictor than mother's education, while mother's occupation was more important than father's occupation. Mother's occupation and parental expectation variables were relatively more important for black women, and parental education variables were more important for white women.     

Family Life Cycle,Extended Family Orientations,and Economic Aspirations as Factors in the Propensity to Migrate*

This paper provides a simultaneous examination of three noteworthy causes of migration. The influences of the nuclear family life cycle, orientation toward the extended family, and economic aspirations upon the propensity to migrate were analyzed for husbands and wives with relatives in the same community. Multivariate analysis of variance and stepwise regressions of the survey data were utilized in testing several hypotheses There was support for the ideas that (1) propensity to migrate declines during successive stages of the nuclear family life cycle, (2) propensity to migrate is inversely related to extended family orientations for husbands and wives with relatives in the same community, and (3) propensity to migrate is directly related to economic aspirations. It is suggested that future theory and research on the causes of migration need to focus on decision making in which the implications of the nuclear family life cycle can be further specified at the personal-psychological level.     

Fathers' Early Emotion Talk: Associations With Income,Ethnicity, and Family Factors

Contextual, mother‐, child‐, and father‐level variables were examined in association with fathers' emotion talk to infants during a shared picture book activity, in an ethnically diverse, low‐income sample (N = 549). Significant main effects included the rate of emotion talk from fathers' romantic partners (i.e., the infant's mother), infant attention and distress, and sensitive parenting. Significant interactions were also found. Higher income African American fathers referred to negative emotions more than non‐African American higher income fathers. In addition, African American fathers who demonstrated more negative and intrusive parenting referred to positive emotions more than non‐African American fathers who demonstrated negative and intrusive parenting. Our findings support family systems theory and, specifically, the interdependence of individuals' behaviors within the family unit. Interaction effects are discussed with respect to cultural variation in beliefs about parenting behaviors and the cultural experience of African Americans, including the Black cultural experience and the minority experience.     

Race, Class, and Family Structure: Differences in Housing Values for Black and White Homeowners

Several scholars have argued that the continuing disadvantage of Blacks vis-à-vis Whites has more to do with social class factors than with race. Other scholars have suggested that differences in family structure account for Black disadvantage. This study addresses these issues in terms of housing values by analyzing (1) the effects of race on housing values net of socioeconomic status and other relevant demographic variables, (2) the interaction of race with socioeconomic status in determining housing values, (3) the interaction of race with household structure in determining housing values and, (4) changes in the relative impact of race on housing values from 1970 to 1990. The findings indicate that Blacks own homes of lower value regardless of their socioeconomic status or household structure. Additionally, the negative effect of race was greater for Blacks of higher status. However, there was a stronger negative association between race and housings values in 1970 than in 1980 or 1990, providing some evidence for a narrowing of the Black-White gap in housing values. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Keeping Leadership White: Invisible Blocks to Black Leadership and Its Denial in White Organizations

This paper explores why leadership, especially senior leadership in British organizations, is persistently nearly always white. The paper contends that beneath the veneer of our apparent commitment to equal opportunities, primitive often unconscious factors operate to ensure that leadership remains white, thus reproducing a racial hierarchy in the workplace. It argues that the barriers to black and minority ethnic people getting appointed to leadership positions in organizations today are largely invisible and are hidden within the psyches of decision makers, the cultures of white organizations, and their combined impact on the confidence of black and minority ethnic staff.