African American Fatherhood

Erikson’s theory for initiative versus guilt describes the stage when a child begins to display dominance over the world through social interaction and pretend play with their peers (Berk, 2014). This is the stage when children become aware of whom they are and embarks on the path to discovering what they want to be when they grow up.

After reading, The Other Wes Moore, it intrigued me how so many of our young people are growing up in families where the parent or parents cannot provide a suitable environment that provides fundamental resources. This book talks about two males that could have ended up with the same fate only if there had not been any assistance to guide one of them on a different path. It is evident that our environment is an essential factor in how we adapt and attain the life that we live. With limited resources, our youth has become a statistic of their environments. As these generations continuously extend, minorities have become the target of a huge issue such as teen pregnancy.

The purpose of this study is to see how Mexican American parents’ parenting style is influenced by their perceived neighborhood danger and their cultural values. It was a cross-sectional research study that looks at how the parents' cultural values and perceived neighborhood danger along with their levels of demand and responsiveness increase the chance of one parenting style of the other. They did not measure autonomy granting. The authors of this article also state that it’s possible for new parenting styles to appear from the parents' experience with ecological challenges like living in dangerous neighborhoods and their traditional cultural values. This is an important ecological challenge to investigate because those types of

In 2007, 28 percent of Baltimore’s children lived in poverty. Both the author’s mother and the other Wes Moore’s mother struggled to provide for their children. Both took extra jobs in the hopes of providing their children with a better life.

During this time period, fathers were the “breadwinners” and expected to work and provide for their families. However, black fathers in the 1950’s particular had to work long hours because the only jobs available to them were often low paying. This directly correlates with African-American’s low place on the social ladder during this pre-Civil Rights era. It was also extremely difficult for African-American women to find work during this time, placing the financial buren solely on the father. They took great pride in their earnings, and sometimes abused their power as head of the household. Many lacked a good relationship with their children because to show emotion besides pride, aggression, or anger would make them weak.

There are many open wounds in the African-American community that have not healed what so ever. Disintegration of family structures in the African-American community has been a persistent problem for far too long. High out of wedlock birth rates, absent fathers, and the lack of a family support network for many young African-Americans have led to serious problems in America's urban areas. The persistence of serious social problems in inner-city areas has led to a tragic perpetuation of racial prejudice as well. African Americans still face a litany of problems in the 21st century today. Some of those problems consist of, unemployment, education, police brutality, single parent households, drugs, gang violence, and the high rate of incarceration

While being on fall break, and now having the freedom of being on Sabbatical from the daunting task of Church Administration, I took the opportunity to return to one of my all-time favorite activities, Mentoring Young Men at Middle School. As completed a 90-minute session with four young men, I realized that many kids today grow up with absentee fathers. There father’s s are never home, always gone, never there for important dates. Even when their fathers are home, they really are not there. They are detached, surfing the internet or on Facebook, watching television, playing video games or working. They may be physically there but they are not mentally or emotionally at home.

African Americans are no longer held in shackles, but are undermined because of their living conditions and race. There are a lot of things that influence African Americans lives, but poverty and jail incarceration seems to be at the root. According to the State of Working America in a 2013 study, African Americans poverty rates is the highest at 27%, compared to White people and Hispanic people. The study also shows that families with only mothers are the highest in poverty at 39.6%; families with both parents ' poverty rate are 16.9%. The absence of a male figure is critical in poverty; it is a 22.7% difference. The ETS, Center for Research on Human Capital and Education, states that poverty affects many areas of children’s lives, including

When becoming a non-custodial father you face a lot of challenges when it comes to you and your children and the relationship/ actions of your child 's mother. Too many fathers start out as “Santa Claus or an activities director” and as time goes on, their visits become fewer and fewer (Thompson, 1994). Children whose parents weren’t married see even less of their dad after the break-up. This lack of contact hurts the father and child. Mandel and Sharlin (2006) report “70% of criminals who were sentenced to long prison terms grew up without a father when they were children”. Non-custodial fathers tend to feel frustrated, left-out, and stressed (Mandel and Sharlin, 2006). Non-custodial fathers also miss out on the little things that happen

One may not notice the people who surround them every day. How one acts and interacts with others on a regular daily basis. Once you start watching people 's body language and social status it is rather amusing to observe. Have you ever just sat down and watched people, but did you think about what their function is in society and in their subculture. The following accounts are derived from my field research.

Youth poverty is correlated with youth violence so in order to lower youth violence and help children succeed we must combat the problem of poverty. The factors that cause poverty are a combination of the structural context of neighborhoods and individual level factors (Chonody). Structural factors would be issues like mobility, urbanicity, and degree of disadvantage (Chonody). Individual factors would be things like low self-control, exposure to deviance, and weak relationships (Chonody). When we look at the situation from a macro level we find that the United States, although a wealthy nation, has the largest poverty rate and the biggest gap between rich and poor of all developed countries (Kramer). The United States provides less government

involved being able to one day be able to pay Lobola, reaffirming their role as father, as well as not being influenced by peer pressure where faithfulness or care is considered as non-hegemonic (Hosegood and Madhavan, 2012). In essence Enderstein and Boonzaier’s (2012) research, showed the power fatherhood has to redefine and shape masculinities in young men, and this research hopes to expand on this, exploring a new aspect of masculinity and fatherhood as opposing yet coinciding aspects of what it means to be a man in south Africa today.

Quantity and quality of father involvement will influence on children’s development. Therefore, this has led to a substantial research effort in trying to identify factors that may affect divorced fathers’ parental behaviour. Father involvement used the three-part definition first proposed by Lamb, Pleck, Charnov and Levine (1985): engagement, availability and responsibility. Engagement is interacting directly with the child. Availability is being accessible and responsibility is providing financial support or making decisions about the

Although the concept of family has been significantly modernised in today’s Western society, societal expectations and stereotypes have not followed the same movement. Consequently, parenting roles have remained somewhat gendered. There is however, some hope for optimism; parenting is changing, whether a shift in parenting paradigm will bring about gender equality remains to be seen. Despite the change in paternal and maternal roles over time, the concept of ‘mommy only’ or ‘daddy only’ duties remain prevalent in our society. Many of these gender labeled roles are to the result of stigmas and ideologies that have endured through the decades (Austin, 2011). The discrimination of roles and assumptions are problematic, especially the excessive

Families or parents are responsible for providing children with basic needs that comes automatically; these needs would include security, food, clothing and shelter. According to Engle and Black in their article, parents are also responsible for transmitting cultural and educational values and help children adapt to societal demands and opportunities. It is imperative that parents are positive role models for their children. Students often learn from their experiences and then gradually adapt to society’s culture. Bergeson (2006) find that communities, families and school need to have good partnerships and at the same time have programs that can aid struggling students. Parker, Greer, and Zuckerman, noted that children that are grown in poverty are more exposed to risks in their home and communities, these would include illnesses, crowding and family stress, lack of psychosocial stimulation, and limited resources. These children usually experience more serious consequences and risk than those children from higher income families (p. 24). Lacour and Tissington, argued that although parent income impact students in different ways, the education of the parents is equally just as vital. They went on to say that mother’s education had more significant effect on children’s scores than income. This includes how a mother speaks, plays or interact with her child/children. Most of these homes consist of single parent or extended family. It was also noted that a mother’s education