African American Daughters and Non-Residential Fathers: A Qualitative Exploration
La Toi S Smith
Chapter 1
Introduction
I spent the majority of my life being raised by a single mother due to my parents’ divorce. Because of my parents’ divorce, my mother stated firmly that I had changed and became a difficult child. I remember rebelling, suffering with low self-esteem and self-worth and blaming myself for the absence of my father. It was not until I was well into womanhood that I found peace within myself, as well as with my nonresidential father. Through the preparation for this study, I have a better understanding of the external and internal factors that can and will affect the father-daughter relationship.
Some scholars have argued the notion that fathers are important contributors to their children and adolescents’ psychosocial development (Mandara, Murray, & Joyner, 2005). According to Allgood, Beckert, and Peterson (2012), researchers are beginning to understand the importance of examining children’s perspectives and the relationships and levels of involvement children have with their fathers.
According to Conner and White (2006), the traditional definition of fatherhood within the African American community underestimates the role of a father and further do not describe the systems that surround the African American experience adequately. Many interpretations of “fathers” have been discussed, with several scholars working from different perspectives offering
Author Harriette Pipes McDoo addresses how family values are influenced by racism in her book, Black Families. She expounds that the challenges faced by African American families have given them the ability to strengthen their core family values through overcoming racially fueled injustices (McDoo 69-71). Factors like racism, poverty, and the fight for equal rights are all factors which vary across the nation within each household affecting individual family value systems. Along with the challenges of adversity, each passing generation inside of American culture have emphasized less and less on multigenerational relationships with families moving and growing into new families to new locations. This rift in the familial structure stems from the evolution of the traditional family combined with the self-motivated desire to succeed
10a. In Mazza’s article, he discussed the effects of parenting program on urban African-American adolescent fathers. His first main point is that more researches on adolescent fathers are needed because most research focused on adolescent parents focused on the teenage mothers. Mazza (2002) argued that the societal and traditional value see fathers as primary caregivers who should provide financial support to the families; however, there are not enough researches on and social programs to support adolescent fathers (Mazza, 2002). The second main point of the article is that parenting program is inefficient, but counseling sessions is more effective to the help the adolescent fathers. Mazza (2005) believed that social workers were able to provide
This article climbs into the struggle of young black males. Many issues that are recurring such as early school dropout, delinquency, poverty, unemployment, incarceration, fatherless, and they don’t have much of a chance to lead a successful life. Most black males are set up to fail at this rate and all this leads to a need to develop interventions to save those lost lives of the young black communities.
The stereotype that African American fathers are not there for their children is a common misconception throughout America. The idea of absent African American fathers is fleeting because more people are beginning to shine light on the statistics of the real number of absent African American fathers. In fact, African American fathers are just as present as white fathers regardless of the relationship with the mother. The latest data finds that the stereotypical gender imbalance in this area doesn’t hold true, and dads are just as hands on when it comes to raising their children. For children between the ages of 5-18, 67% of fathers talk with their children about their day daily. This manner of conversation is the foundation of a healthy relationship.
Black fathers in the United States are more prone to becoming more absent from their children's lives. A key factor to the absence of these fathers is because of mass incarceration due to police brutality, drugs, felonies, and murders. Many of these black men commit the crimes knowingly, therefore knowing that it could lead them to jail or prison. These men are deliberately committing the crimes that have become part of their lifestyle because they are determined to live a life of wealth and luxury. Even though there are opportunities for these men to work legally to earn their money they still chose to do it the illegal way. Guns and drug charges are the two main factors in causing these men to be absent from their children's lives. The lives
A father’s role in a child’s life is extremely important when it comes to a child’s development. With so much emphasis placed on young black boys needing their fathers during crucial developmental ages, the rate of our young black girls growing up without fathers is staggering and overlooked. What is an absent father? The definition is quite simple; an absent father can be defined as a father who is not present in the life of their child whether it is physically, emotionally, or both. Although the absence of a father is detrimental in any child’s life, the absence of such in a young black girl’s life is even more crucial. The absent father in a black girl’s life leads to, in some cases, promiscuity and teenage pregnancy, poverty, and
(Smith, 1988, p. 270). High homicide rates, high suicide rates, few job options, high percentage of drop outs, and limited life plan continue to become more common within the adolescent male the belief that he must survive. In today’s generation, adolescent fathers may feel like if he plays an active role in the child’s life, then he will be an adult, but may also feel like he does not need to provide financial support to the mother. Because of an adolescent father’s fixated view of self, influenced by society, would only make sure he is in a “good” position. Social workers often put an emphasis on how the father grew up in a damaged household with little to no motivation to be an active father in the child’s life, whereas they should provide more assistance into helping him be a better person and the best father. With all of these challenges that adolescent fathers face, I begin to question, how much hope does society have for the African-American male and his
The target population is African American adolescent fathers. Young African American fathers are face with many adversities. Culturally biased stereotypes, violence within the home and community, scarce economic resources and support, perceived biased by social workers, along with joblessness are some of the adversities experienced by this population (Hall, 2015, Icard, 2014,). One concern of African American adolescent fathers who are low income is the level of their involvement with their children. In addition to poverty, many of these fathers are challenge developmentally and socially. Developmentally, adolescence is a stage that is typically emotionally, social and physically challenging (Erikson ?). Socially the effects of racism disadvantage
Although single parenthood is on the rise in homes today, children still often have a father role in their life. It does not matter who the part is filled by: a father, uncle, older brother, grandfather, etc...; in almost all cases, those relationships between the father (figure) and child have lasting impacts on the youth the rest of their lives. In “I Wanted to Share My Father’s World,” Jimmy Carter tells the audience no matter the situation with a father, hold onto every moment.
A father and son relationship is very important. It is the foundation for boys to become men. The article, “Why the Father Wound Matter: Consequences for Male Mental Health and the Father-Son Relationship”, by Eric D. Miller explains the concept of a father wound that can manifest in males due to a father neglecting or abusing them. Miller stresses that by becoming fathers’, men can overcome father wounds. He touches upon the idea of masculinity, and how it can be a factor to why there is sometimes a distant relationship between a father and a son. The “A Father’s Call: Father-Son Relationship Survival of Critical Life Transitions”, by Ivory Achebe Toldson and Ivory Lee Toldson explains the relationship between a father and a son from adolescent into adulthood. Lee who was the father describes his struggles through a divorce and how he stayed connected to his son no matter what occurred. Lee’s son Achehbe is also featured in the article and expresses the rough childhood he went through without his father being directly in his life. Together these two articles show that a father is essential to the raising of a boy because without one many form father wounds along with emotional problems.
Fatherless homes in the black community is at 57.6% (NCF, 2017). One of many issues of a fatherless home is children have less structure and lack of discipline; i.e. Chicago. The children suffer the most. I believe children need both parents in the household to be complete (“not all”). I believe if women have father’s in their lives (a positive male figure at minimum) it could help their decision in choosing the right mate will help this issue.
Most mothers and fathers love their kids with all their heart. As a child begins to age, parents begin to influence their kids and will mold them as they mature. However, parents without much care for their kids will leave a long-term effect on their children and in this study, the main impact is the father.
In the United States today more than one-half of all marriages end in divorce. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reason why women have typically received custody of the children far more often than the fathers. In order to better understand child custody one must first examine how fathers have often times been left out of the picture, and conversely why mothers have had such hard times raising children on their own. This paper will first examine the perspective of a father who has lost custody of his children.
Growing up without a father or strong male role model in the United States is extremely difficult. Fatherless children are disadvantaged in American society and face a greater struggle to become successful in their personal, educational, and professional lives. The decline of fatherhood in one of the most unexpected and extraordinary trends of our time. Its dimensions can be captured in a single statistic: In just three decades, between 1960 and 1990, the percentage of children living apart from their
The role of the father, a male figure in a child’s life is a very crucial role that has been diminishing over the years. An absent father can be defined in two ways; the father is physically not present, or the father is physically present, but emotionally present. To an adolescent, a father is an idolized figure, someone they look up to (Feud, 1921), thus when such a figure is an absent one, it can and will negatively affect a child’s development. Many of the problems we face in society today, such as crime and delinquency, poor academic achievement, divorce, drug use, early pregnancy and sexual activity can be attributed to fathers being absent during adolescent development (Popenoe, 1996; Whitehead, 1993). The percentage of