We will discuss 10 specific steps parents can take to make a critical difference in their teen's health and future by empowering them to choose abstinence until marriage. Question-and-answer sessions help the whole family talk openly and honestly about relationships, health, and the benefits of saying NO to premarital sex. We will both inform and motivate parents regarding the importance of abstinence education. This presentation combines eye-opening, research-based facts about widespread teen sexual activity and consequences with clear guidelines for encouraging teens to choose abstinence
Living in a high risk urban environment may be a salient factor in dating violence outcomes for African American youth. Delinquency, depression, exposure to community violence, peer violence, and substance abuse disproportionately affect African American youth in general and young African American males in particular. Recent studies have indicated that dating violence has become a common occurrence among this population as well.
This study uses data from the CDC Youth Violence Survey to explore risk and protective factors related to dating violence perpetration (physical and psychological) in a sample of African American youth living in a high risk urban environment who reported having been on a date in the past 12 months (n=770).
Descriptive statistics were employed to summarize the data. Reliability analyses using Cronbach’s alpha were used to ascertain the internal consistency. The Pearson correlation was used to explore the strength of linear association among the variables and constructs under study. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to explore the predictive ability of selected risk and protective factors for dating violence perpetration. All analyses were stratified by gender.
Delinquency, depressive symptoms, exposure to community violence, peer violence, substance abuse, and normative attitudes about violence against dating partners were tested as potential risk factors for dating violence perpetration among African American youth. Conversely, parental support, self efficacy, and social support were tested as potential protective factors that may buffer against risks for dating violence.
Reports of both physical and psychological dating violence perpetration were more prevalent among females than males. Each of the selected risk factors made a significant contribution to physical dating violence outcomes. However, the perpetration of psychological dating violence (e.g., insults, saying things to purposely hurt one’s feelings) against dating partners was the strongest predictor of physical dating violence perpetration.
Peer interpersonal violence was found to be the strongest predictor of psychological dating violence perpetration for male and female study participants. However, due to the cross sectional nature of the data, temporal sequencing could not be determined.
For females in the current study, self efficacy was significant moderator of the relationship between the perpetration of psychological dating violence and the perpetration of physical dating violence. For males in the study, this relationship was significantly moderated by social support from 1) friends and 2) family.
This study's findings highlight the need for early initiation of cross cutting multi-level prevention and intervention efforts. In particular, prevention and intervention should: strive to increase awareness of dating violence; enhance protective factors such as social support networks, and self efficacy to avoid violence, address gender based relational issues that contribute to psychological violence. Moreover, it is important that such efforts give adequate consideration to the socio-cultural context in which the phenomenon of dating violence occurs.
African Americans exhibit high aspirations for marriage, yet low marriage rates and high divorce rates. This article describes a portion of the outcome data from pilot research to develop a culturally relevant and gender-sensitive psycho educational practice model. The primary goal of this unique project was to improve “marital” stability and quality in this previously untargeted population. The article presents some of the findings from the single subject outcome data (Barlow and Hersen, 1992) on the AAME curriculum’s effects on marital satisfaction.
Following an extensive literature review (Blackman, 1992), a curriculum was developed and field-tested in a southeastern city. Subsequently, the process of empirically informed revision and re-testing was conducted with three additional cohorts (N=30) in a mid-western, community-based research project from 1998–2000.
The findings indicate that marital satisfaction was significantly improved at post-test for 11 of the 18 graduating participants as measured by the Global Distress subscale of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory (MSI-R) (Snyder, 1997) and 14 of 18 as measured by the Index of Marital Satisfaction (Hudson, 1992). Notably, consumer satisfaction scores ranged by cohort from 87.1 (January–April 1998), to 88.5 (November 1998–February 1999), and 90.9 (January–April 2000). These consumer satisfaction scores are equivalent to traditional academic grades of “B+” to “A.” Although highly rated by both genders, the curriculum was rated higher by men, a major challenge to most mental health and social service programs. Therefore, the findings suggest, marriage education designed for and with African Americans has the potential to teach men and women achieve their dreams of lasting, satisfying marriages and families. However, confounding patterns of education, poverty, substance abuse, infidelity, and family violence also must be addressed by family life education program planners. As described elsewhere (Blackman, 2006), a wrap-around system of care should be in place for AAME program participants.
This workshop will provide an overview of the AAME curriculum, including a description of the development and testing phases of the project and highlights of some of the data from it. The session will also include a conversation on how to implement AAME Curriculum with low-Income couple. Debbie Segler, an AAME instructor, will describe her experience with its implementation in a southwestern city with low income families. Finally, Dr. Ruth Lambert will lead the discussion of her experience with using the AAME curriculum to build a state-wide coalition's capacity to deliver marriage education in the mid-west.
Frequently within the African American community the words like cheating, stepping out, affairs, and man sharing are used often to explain infidelity. Rarely do individuals try to examine the roots of this phenomenon and identify ways to get through the ordeal of an affair, heal and stay married. This paper will examine the effects of infidelity upon a marriage and the psychological mindset of an individual who will indulge in such behavior. We will also provide an understanding of how couples can move past the hurt and shame of infidelity. Implications for unfaithfulness on couples are discussed. This paper will then address the impact of discovery on couples, types of faithful encounters, personality of a philander and the treatment stages for repairing a relationship that has been violated.
Experts are reaching a consensus on the proposition that if children are raised in homes with responsible fathers, they do better in all areas of their lives. DADS believe that strengthening fathers is the most powerful way to improve the quality of life for families in Urban America.
To this end, DADS gives skill sets to fathers to enable them to recognize their responsibilities, manage those responsibilities and create strong and permanent bonds with their estranged children and their families.
Having worked with more than 1500 fathers since its inception, DADS has assisted it’s clients to achieve a higher compliance with child support payments and increased time spent with their children who were estranged from them. The result is increased family stability.
The outcomes we have seen convince us that increased attention and resources devoted to understanding and working with estranged fathers in urban communities is a critical factor in alleviating their absence. The absence of fathers from their families has been the prime contributor to urban family instability prior to and since the publication of the Moynihan Report in 1965.
The nearly universal perspective of marriage as an indispensable social institution has been changing significantly in recent decades. Besharov and West (2002) present evidence which shows that over the “past fifty years, for all Americans, marriage rates have declined while divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births have climbed. Negative changes have been greatest among African Americans” (p. 95). In 1998, approximately 29% of African American women aged fifteen and over were married compared to 55% of White women (Besharov & West, 2002). Between 1998 and 2002, the percentage of married African American women had increased slightly to 31%. A higher percentage of African American men were married than African American females, but a higher percentage were also never married. Findings indicate that between 1975 and 2002, the proportion of African American women who were married declined from approximately 55% to about 41%.
When attention is focused on never married women, we see that: “between 1950 and 1998, the percentage of never married White women aged fifteen and over rose from 20% to 22%, a 2% rise. But the percentage of never married African American women nearly doubled, from 21% to 41%” (Besharov & West, 2002, p. 96). Recent census figures place the number of never married African American women at 42%.
When one takes divorce into consideration, the preceding figures are even more startling. In 1990 there were 358 divorces for every 1000 African American women compared to 166 for White women (Tucker & Mitchell-Kernan, 2002). African American women are less likely to remarry after a divorce, meaning that African American children of divorcees are more likely to spend a substantial portion of their lives in single-parent households. Social science evidence suggests that children who live in female-householder families are much more likely to live in poverty as compared to children in married family households (U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2003). Data show that African American female-headed families experience higher poverty rates than any other type of family.
Marriage is the spiritual and cultural covenant agreement between consenting parties that they will fully make a commitment to each other for life. Inherent in that declaration is that their bond will consist of mutual love, respect, trust, understanding, and faithfulness to each other. Although the divorce rate is exceedingly high in the African-American community and the percentages of those not getting married or marrying at a later age are increasing, the dream and ideal still continue to be to seek a healthy, long lasting productive marriage. Unfortunately that goal is illusive and one of the contributing factors is the high rate of infidelity in the African-American population.
Infidelity has been defined as everything from having “an improper relationship” to having “an undercover lover” to having a “lady on the side.” Society has rationalized this behavior and in some circles glamorized it, but regardless of how it is portrayed it is basically “cheating on your mate. ” Experts estimate that nearly 75% of married men, or men in a serious relationship, cheat. That means three men out of every four committed men practice infidelity.
When a couple enters into the holy act of matrimony, they expect a monogamous relationship. Infidelity is not discussed, nor anticipated, however as previously stated it is rather rampant. Infidelity is viewed as an act of betrayal, based generally on lies and deception. It impedes the marriage from developing into a relationship in which unreserved sharing, giving and trusting can abound between the members of the couple. There are feelings of abandonment, disrespect, rejection, abuse, shame, inferiority, and failure, which all are contributing emotions to the destruction of a healthy, viable marriage. If not properly discussed, these feelings can result in long term physical and psychological damage to the person against whom the act of infidelity has been perpetrated.
Infidelity can exhibit the behavior of power and control over another person, while destroying any lasting commitment or responsibility to another. In today’s very open, expressive, explicit society many sexual behavior patterns are learned. Coupled with that and so many negative societal issues that bombard the Africa-American community, the climate for infidelity and distrust is greatly enhanced.
This presentation will look at various possible causes for infidelity and how it can contribute to the destruction of a marriage. The psychological and spiritual dimensions will be discussed as possible strategies to pursue in preserving healthy relationships.
Our focus on marriage promotion and enrichment occurs against the background of a heated debate between at least two schools:
In 2003, the Annie E. Casey Foundation decided to take an interesting pulse read on what African American clergy had to say about the state of healthy marriage in their communities, especially low-income, African American communities. Through a series of focus groups, consultations that brought together black clergy and some of the leading lights in the marriage promotion/enrichment field, and field interviews this is what we found:
The challenges African American couples face during a male prisoner’s incarceration and return home is the focus of this presentation. Among the areas discussed are the mental health stresses associated with maintaining and terminating relationships, male and female concerns about conflict and violence, and family resilience and support issues. Data for this national study of family issues and prisoner reentry were obtained from interviews conducted with men in prison and on parole and women who were the wives and girlfriends of men involved in the correctional system.
This presentation will highlight the current state of the changing status of the black males in our community, and strategies to create sustainable programs that address this perplexing problem. A research report from the William T. Grant Foundation conducted by social scientists and policy advocates have been warning those of us that work as practitioners in the black community, that half of our youth and young adults are having enormous difficulty in transitioning into adulthood. This unraveling warning has realized a new era of young men who are not assuming responsibility for themselves, their families and their community. Unfortunately, we have more single parent households, and more children growing up without having a healthy relationship with their fathers.
New studies by researchers from Columbia, Princeton and Harvard again found that young blacks in their 20s and 30s are more likely to be jobless, tossed in jail, join gangs, father children out of wedlock, kill other young blacks and pillage their communities in far higher numbers than young white or Hispanic men. The dangling question that the researchers did not satisfactorily answer is why so many young black men have become endangered in America, and just as important, what can be done to reverse it.
Discrimination, racial profiling, failing public schools and broken homes are the easy answers that the researchers fingered to explain the crisis. Some research indicates fiscal and economic policies have resulted in the loss of millions of jobs and elimination of job training programs and dearth of tax incentives for the working poor have certainly helped fuel the crisis. But the crisis among young black men can’t be totally directed at dubious fiscal and economic policies, because when the economy was booming, the unemployment rate for young black males was still double and in some parts of the country triple that of white males. At the same time, state and federal cutbacks in job training and skills programs, the brutal competition for low- and semi-skilled service and retail jobs from immigrants and the refusal of many employers to hire those with criminal records have sledge-hammered black communities.
When some young blacks turned to gangs, guns and drugs and terrorized their communities that seemed to confirm the stereotypes. The explosion of gangster rap and the spate of Hollywood violence-themed ghetto films have convinced even more Americans that the thug lifestyle is the black lifestyle. Researchers also pointed to the high number of miserably failing inner-city public schools as partly responsible for the slide of young black males. Certainly, poor schools have turned thousands of young black males into educational cripples. These students are desperately unequipped to handle the rapidly evolving and demanding technical and professional skills needed to compete in the public sector and the business world of the 21st century. These factors also cripple their ability to become responsible and provide for their families.
In order to meet the daunting challenges of changing the status of black males in America, it will be paramount that we acknowledge we have a serious problem, and strategically we must begin to plan, design and implement successful outcome driven results to address theses issues. The message has to be an attitudinal evolution within the black community. We have to reach into the community and insist our youth stay in school, be responsible stewards of our community, stay away from drugs, ignore the bling-bling, and return to values that foster healthy relationships and families. Continued dialog about the problem will not change the status of today’s black males. Holding ourselves accountable however, will make a significant and dramatic impact in our society.
The Baltimore Building Strong Families Project is a national, multi- site research project. The Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development opened a BSF pilot site in Baltimore, Maryland in July, 2005. The program has flourished from a pilot site to a full implementation site. The presentation about BBSF will consist of 3 discussion areas.
A brief discussion will be held to make clear to audience members that may not be familiar with BSF, the purpose, program components, evaluation design and key outcomes of the research project.
The program design of the BBSF program will be explained to make clear to audience members how the BBSF staff recruit and work with couples around strengthening their couple relationship and moving toward marriage, if they so choose.
There have been several lessons learned from the couples that participate in the BBSF program since the beginning of the project. We will discuss some of the triumphs that the BBSF site has experienced with couples thus far. We will explore some of the challenges we have observed that may hinder stable family formation. We will also discuss the benefits this program provides to the children of our couples.
Is there a more vilified character than the Black male in the history of America? The Black Male in America has been under attack since his arrival through the ports of Jamestown, Virginia in the early 1600s. His picture in the media strikes fear, his unemployment rate has never been less than twice the unemployment rate of his white counterpart, he has the highest rate of incarceration, he is virtually absent from corporate America, he is more likely to be in jail than he is to be in college, he makes less than his white counterparts even when he has the same degree and experience, and the list goes on. To further complicate matters, the Black male today seems to be finishing where the Ku Klux Klan left off. The number one killer of Black boys ages 14–25 is homicide (generally a black male killing another black male), the Black male ranks amongst the highest of those infected with HIV only trailing his female counterpart, one out of every 4 black males is in jail, on parole or on probation, and he is virtually absent from his family, as nearly 70% of black households are headed by single black women. In nearly every quality of life indicator, the black male is lagging far behind, which has led many scholars to conclude that the black male has reached “endangered” status.
In the emergence of hip-hop music, videos, and movies, the image of the Black male has suffered greatly. National Family Life and Education Center utilizes the Ten Step Rites of Passage Program to help young men transition from malehood to manhood. We view healthy Black Men as the key to restoring hope, love, and peace to our families, communities, and nation. Due to the severity of the challenges being faced by Black Men in America, efforts and resources need to be provided with extreme urgency for this population. The Ten Step Rites of Passage model is one of the keys to insure the positive development of young black men.
The cornerstone of any civilization is the family. Healthy families, lead to healthy communities, and healthy communities lead to a healthy nation. Our ability to positively impact the crime rates, poverty rates, incarceration rates, unemployment rates, suicide rates, HIV infection rates, teen pregnancy rates, and all other negative forces that are impacting the Black community, is tied to our ability to positively affect the Black Family. The greatest problem confronting America today, is the state of America’s family. While all families are in trouble, the Black family in America has been in a constant state of crisis. Today, we are seeing the fruits of nearly three centuries of slavery, an additional century of jim crowism, racial segregation and oppression, and less than 40 years of quasi equal rights. The fruit of years of oppression, has developed into a self-hate and self-destruction that has led Blacks to having the highest divorce rates in the nation; the highest rate of school drop out, suspension and expulsion in the nation; the highest rates of unemployment; the highest rates of incarceration; and one of the highest death rates in the modern world. In a real sense, the Black Family, and the Black community is in trouble.
In our effort to counter the internalized oppression within our families, we must be proactive in preparing our young people today, to form healthy families tomorrow. This is a challenge, particularly since nearly 70% of black children are the products of single-parent households. We must revisit the “Village” model of our ancestors that declared “It takes a Village to raise a Child.” Through the Ten Step Rites of Passage model, we work to educate, empower, and mobilize the community to help young people learn the critical lessons they will need to become positive and productive adults. This is a three to five year process, of deprogramming, programming, and support for young people to view healthy families as attainable and necessary institutions for our survival and highest quality of life.
Review of Brad Wilcox’s findings (2004 report) on Af-Ams, church involvement and marriage education preferences.
Overcoming negative myths in opposition to the Af-Am two-parent family
Key challenges to Af-Am church-based marriage education and how to overcome them
–Male Ex-prisoners in re-entry programs
–Other Unaffiliated persons in the Af-Am community
–Gender-specific presentations for marriage education
This presentation will broadly examine physical and mental health statuses as factors that affect African American males’ individual functioning and role performance across the life course and the impact of these factors on their functioning in parenting and couple relationships. The presentation will draw upon theoretical and empirical research findings as well as curricula and program data toward developing a contextual framework for conducting current and conceptualizing future research in addition to guiding public policy and intervention practice initiatives aimed at family development outcomes like healthy marriages among African Americans.
The workshop will provide the audience with an overview of background information in the development of the “Exploring Relationships and Marriage with Fragile Families” curriculum; including the use of research findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, research findings from Louisiana’s Fragile Families Study: Fragile Families in Focus, review of research-based marriage education programs and research findings from African American psychologists and sociologists who have developed relationship skills processes for African Americans.
The experience will provide participants with first hand knowledge of how the curriculum has been used with low income couples in Chicago at the Archdiocese of Chicago Family Ministries.
Is children’s development affected by the marital relationship of their parents? It seems hard to imagine a more intuitive question, and we would expect a correspondingly simple answer—yes. Yet, upon further exploration we realize the answer is anything but simple. The complexity of this question, the policy context that has helped shape a growing body of related research, and the implications of findings for policy and practice are the topics of this discussion.
There has been, over the past 10 years, extensive debate and literally hundreds of research articles intending to estimate whether parents’ marital status affects children’s well-being and development, estimate how large the effects are, and estimate why those effects might occur. A layperson could question the contribution of this literature, particularly given that it sometimes reaches seemingly inconsistent conclusions, requires complex statistical methods to overcome data limitations, and leaves some important questions unanswered; however a careful review of the research clearly shows that it has a great deal of insight to offer practitioners in the field, particularly if viewed within the policy context that helped shape it and, in turn, has been shaped by it.
The importance of parents’ marital status has been the center of an emotional debate. From one perspective, there have been concerns that the tradition of raising children within married-parent families has so greatly eroded as to undermine the foundation of our society and place the well-being of our children in serious jeopardy, particularly in disadvantaged communities. From another perspective, there are concerns that focusing on the benefits of marriage could undermine society’s acceptance of or support for families within other structures, and could miss the root causes of adverse outcomes among children.
This debate has, in part, shaped the development of the research. Starting as a basic observation that children raised by biological married parents fair better on average than other children, it has grown to include increasingly complex modeling that attempts to parse out how much of the disparity is due to marital status itself, how much is due to attributes the parents possessed prior to their union, and how much is due to attributes the family acquired after their union. Far more than an academic exercise, the findings from this parsing out have guided national policy concerning healthy marriage promotion in valuable ways, and hold important insights for practitioners in the field as well.
This research has made clear that tangled within the seemingly simple question of whether parental marital structure matters is a complex set of questions concerning the role of marital opportunities versus marital aspirations, fathers versus mothers, family structure versus family economics, marital structure versus residence or biology, marriage versus healthy marriage, and parental presence versus parental practices. Failing to disentangle these factors in our research, policies and practice could hinder our ability to help families in need. For example, we could fail to recognize that certain families may remain in need of assistance even once they benefit from entering into healthy marriage. We also may miss opportunities to identify and incorporate into interventions those attributes of healthy marriage that most benefit and protect children.
There are many challenges in addressing the questions posed above, and the answers we have are far from complete, but researchers have made some important progress. During this presentation I will discuss some of their findings as well as implications for topics such as:
This paper considers unique stories as they relate the issues of domestic violence to the unique need within the African American community. This work features several case studies of African American couples (married and not married) varying across age, income status, and regional location. Are there domestic violence issues unique to this community? If so, what are they? Finally, what are recommendations to address these issues? In answering these questions, we include interviews with national, regional, state, and local domestic violence treatment facilities and administrations. It is our hope that the findings will help to stem the tide of violence resulting in unhealthy relationships.
Although U.S. welfare policies were intended to strengthen low-income, vulnerable families, some of these policies have discouraged men, especially African-American men, from participating in the formation and continuation of marriage, as well as in co-parenting relationships. Public welfare payments and support have been primarily directed toward single mothers and their children, primarily because public laws often limit benefits, such as cash assistance, food stamps or housing vouchers, when another parent is in the household. As a result, the presence of men or fathers in U.S. low-income households has been discouraged and typically causes termination or the substantial reduction of benefits to the family if men stay involved with their families.
As a result of these policies, as well as other growing challenges facing Black men, 68% of Black children are now born to unmarried parents, with half or more of these children not having significant contact with their fathers after they reach 3 years of age. Three-fourths of unmarried, low-income fathers say they want to marry the mother of their child but this only happens in a small minority of cases. As a result, multi-partner fertility and parenting is very common and relationship distrust makes a weak foundation for long-term commitments.
Data merged from the national, North Carolina and multi-year Family Strength Index indicate several capacities for relationship strength that can help restore Black men’s contribution to their family’s well-being. These data indicate that the majority of these men (both unmarried and married) enjoy spending time with their families (84%), feel they can express themselves well to their partners (90%), are confident that relationship problems can be solved (85%), and are willing to seek spiritual guidance (88%). But other data from this same study indicate how fragile these relationships can be. Many of these men admit to having trouble talking together with their partner (60% of unmarried, 33% of married). The social isolation of these Black men is reflected in the fact that only 32% of unmarried, 43% of married men say they can go to their friends for help with family issues. While Black men say they enjoy spending time with their families, only 52% of unmarried and 77% of married men acknowledge that they actually do spend time together each week as a family. And fragile economic issues face these fathers as 43% of the unmarried and 49% of the married with household incomes less than $40,000 indicate their families cannot meet needs for basic necessities.
The costs for sustaining these fragile roles for Black men in their families are too high. If current trends continue, Black men will continue to be marginalized in their families, boys will not grow up in communities with engaged fathers or expectations for their own marriages, high levels of government assistance will be needed to supplement family earnings, and educational and economic progress for Black children and men will continue to suffer. Other research demonstrates the significant benefits to families when Black men are engaged with their families. These benefits include lower rates of family poverty, fewer incidents of child abuse (since higher abuse rates occur from non-biological, visiting men), and better outcomes for children, including higher academic achievement, better mental health, lower delinquency rates, fewer school conduct problems, and lower rates of teenage childbearing.
To help determine how Black fathers can be positively engaged and strengthened in their roles in families, focus groups with low-income men and women were conducted across NC in 2004. These groups included Black men who were single, cohabiting and married. The results, first of all, confirm the findings from the Family Strength Index. Both men and women agreed that they need help in communicating better, building trust and commitment, learning how to co-parent together, and building financial and job skills for economic security. And on the positive side, the men and fathers agreed that these are all areas in which they are willing to work, if the help is provided from trusted and local resources in their own communities. They were most willing to access help offered through churches, recreation centers, health clinics and schools. They also desired mentors from their own communities who had experienced some of the issues they currently face. They wanted help getting job training and skills that would translate into real local jobs. And for relationship help, they acknowledged the need to work on relationship issues, but to do so they would need child care, understanding leaders, and an environment that made doing this fun and rewarding.
In conclusion, strengthening the roles of Black men in their families and communities is desperately needed but it will be a daunting task. So much of our societal energy and resources is dedicated to mothers and children and so little is dedicated to strengthening men and boys, especially Black men and boys. The potential benefits to society and the family for strengthening the competence, confidence, and capacity of Black men is enormous. The potential costs for continuing neglect of these men are also enormous, and will sustain the significant challenges now being faced by many children and women who do not have fathers and partners in their lives that can help them build a sure future.
Several recent studies have shown that the employment and earnings of young less-educated black males consistently declined between 1979 and 2000, in contrast to the experiences of most Americans, including less-educated women. During the recession and jobless recovery of the first years of the 21st century, black male employment, earnings, and graduation rates continued to deteriorate, while the incarceration rates reached staggering levels, involving nearly one third of young black men in some cities. Many observers have called for new policies and programs to reverse these long-term trends, however, a strategic responses requires knowledge about the best policy opportunities and the obstacles against which policy responses must work. After briefly reviewing the dimensions of the challenges facing young, less-educated black males, I discuss a general mission statement that should guide policies and programs to assist them. Next I discuss opportunities in critical policy areas (employment criminal justice, and child support enforcement), which must be addressed. I conclude by addressing barriers to promising policy ideas.
This presentation will focus on examining how we partner with families and redirecting that participation to focus on the importance of marriage and males being re-included in the family picture. The presentation will explain the importance of building trusting relationships with African American families, and educating all partners and staff on the dynamics of African American families. The marriage process is discussed as a foundation and means to reach family long success.
This presentation will explain strategies and processes to be used when developing new programs and improving existing ones. The presenter will explain current methods she is using, along with curriculums. Success and failures will be explained to help participants to save time and set new goals for their programs. The ultimate objective of this training is to define ways to positively empower families so that they are more successful in all walks of life, and use a quality healthy marriage as a foundation to build from.
A number of recent reports have highlighted the prevalence of children born out of wedlock in the African-American community. Over 68% of the births among African-American women are to those who are unmarried as compared to only 24% for Anglo women and 45% for Hispanic women. This suggests that only about a third of African American children are born to married couples.
To ensure that African-American couples are not simply marrying after the birth of a child, it is important to understand the numbers of African-American children being reared in women headed households. Of the 4.5 million children in the U.S. living in fatherless homes, nearly 80% are African American. Sixty-nine percent of Anglo children and 55% of Hispanic children live in married families while only 27% of African American children grow up in such an environment. Anglo and Hispanic children are much more likely to be reared in married and cohabitating homes than African-American children.
Given the numbers of African-American children reared without fathers, one could surmise that a significant number of African-American children are missing an important aspect of parenting in their childhood. These factors include both the economic and emotional impact that fathers provide. It can be stated that from an economic perspective and the simple attentiveness to children that two parents can provide, two parent households are generally more beneficial. Children from two parent households tend to have higher incomes and to experience lower levels of poverty. There are a number of positive aspects of childhood rearing that are associated with higher levels of household income. Some of these include access to better schools, educational supplies, and recreational activities. It has been suggested that growing up in a single parent household in the U.S. exposes children to many more economical challenges.
Given the obvious economic consequences of having fathers around in the lives of children, we must be careful not to view fathers simply as providers. A father’s presence and activities with his child are just as beneficial to children as financial support. For example, fathers are more likely to be involved in social activities, play, and physical interactions and they are likely to serve as a social playmate for children under three years old. Fathering is different than mothering in that fathers average more play time with their children than mothers do, are more playful and less restrictive than mothers, and praise their infants more during physical play. There is evidence of significant effects on cognitive, language skills, and behavior when African-American fathers are present. There are a number of consequences to children growing up without a residential father. These children are at risk of lower levels of school performance, higher school dropout rates, making lower wages as young adults and more likely to establish single households themselves. This effect is far more pronounced with boys than girls in that boys’ academic performances might be more affected by father absence. To understand gender differences in the absent of fathers in the African-American community is important given the ever increasing numbers of children growing up without residential fathers. Some have theorized that the lack of a positive father—son relationship might influence later adolescent aggressive behaviors, risky sexual attitudes, and poor school performance.
In this workshop we will discuss ways that faith based communities can engage the ever-growing population of incarcerated males. We will walk through intervention methodologies and propose methods of facilitating successful re-entry into society. Prevention of recidivism and the important roles of healthy marriages and families will be a cornerstone for our discussion. We will offer a case study on some of the re-entry challenges and highlight successful responses to incarcerated individuals and their families. Our discussion will also deal with are:
The Building Strong Families Program (BSF) is an effort to improve outcomes for children by attempting to create stronger, healthier, more lasting relationships with their biological parents. Georgia Building Strong Families is part of a seven site national evaluation sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. BSF is a randomized case-control intervention study of marriage and relationship programs for unwed parents to determine if, by providing this intervention to couples it will; improve relationship quality and stability; enhance parenting skills; increase father involvement; build family self-sufficiency and enhance child well-being.
One-third of U.S. children are born to single mothers, with Georgia children exceeding this national average at 39%. For African Americans in Georgia the rate of unmarried births is 65.7% and among Latinos the rate of unwed births is 44% and has been increasing since the early 90s. Young women under the age of 25 account for the majority of Georgia’s births. 53.7% of these young women ages 20–24 were unmarried at the time of the birth of their children. Within the Atlanta metropolitan area, many census tracts have unmarried birth rates that exceed the state average.
In an effort to fully capture our target population Georgia Building Strong Families serves both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking couples in our attempts to strengthen the family unit. Currently Georgia BSF will enroll 512 couples (80% English Speaking/20% Spanish Speaking) over a two year period, half in the experimental group and half in the control group. Spanish-speaking couples receive services from our partner, the Latin American Association.
Couples are eligible to participate in Building Strong Families if they are; expecting a baby, or just had one within the last 3 months; both people in the couple are 18 years old or over; both say that they are romantically involved with each other; and both want and can participate in the program and are not married (or married since they learned they were pregnant.) Georgia BSF recruits couples from the local public health clinics and Grady Memorial Hospital (the City Hospital). There are three key elements of Georgia BSF.
Loving Couples, Loving Children (LCLC) marriage and relationship education and skills curriculum. LCLC consists of 22 core sessions that are delivered by a trained male-female facilitator team in two-hour weekly sessions of eight couples over a six-month period.Access to family support services, such as employment services, substance abuse treatment, housing, etc., as needed. On-going, one-on-one family support over a sustained period.
Currently, Georgia BSF is running eight groups, six English-speaking and two Spanish-speaking. It is too early in program implementation to report any outcomes data however, in observing our couples it is evident that these couples value their relationships and are eager, motivated and anxious for programs that will help them make their relationship last.
Outcomes data will be collected on every couple and the baby that brought them into the program. Couples and the focal child will be followed longitudinally. Each member of the couple will undergo a baseline survey upon program entry and will be surveyed 15 months and 36 months after program entry. The focal child will be assessed in person by trained psychologist and assessors at three years of age.
I hope to shed some light on the paradox that African American religion is unusually vibrant and the institution of marriage in the African American community is unusually fragile. General Social Survey data from 1990 to 1998 reveal that 52 percent of African American adults attend church several times a month or more, compared to the 39 percent of Americans from other racial and ethnic backgrounds who attend religious services regularly. But African Americans have low rates of marital childbearing, and comparatively high rates of marital distress and divorce. This is a paradox because religious practice is generally associated with strong marriages. Accordingly, this presentation will examine the links between churchgoing, sex, marriage, and relationship quality among African Americans to see if they parallel associations between churchgoing and marital behavior among other ethnic groups.
Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and the National Survey of Family Growth, I find that, for the most part, churchgoing influences the marriage-related behavior of African Americans in much the same way that it influences whites. African Americans who attend religious services are more likely to have children in marriage, to marry after a nonmarital birth, and to enjoy higher-quality marriages (and nonmarital relationships), compared to their unchurched African American peers. But I also find that churchgoing is not a panacea for African Americans. African Americans are influenced by a range of factors—from racism to a popular culture that often depicts black sexuality and relationships in a degrading light—that tend to swamp the positive effect of faith on African American relationships. This helps to explain the paradox of strong black religiosity and fragile black marriages.
The goals of the workshop are 1) to define healthy marriage; 2) to present research on current challenges of raising teenage sons and daughters; 3) to offer a design of healthy marital practices drawing on African American family values and cultural and spiritual strengths as reservoirs of strength and resilience; and 4) to provide methods for positive identity formation and sexual responsibility.
Healthy marriage is defined first by persons’ readiness for marriage and, second, by the ability of marital partners to perform certain marital cycle tasks. Readiness for marriage is defined as two mature human beings of the opposite sex who have achieved a good sense of differentiation from their childhood and adolescent roles and identity within their family of birth or origin; who have the emotional capacity to enter intimate relationships without losing themselves; who have the ability for self and other empathy; who have the potential to take full responsibility for themselves economically; who have transitioned successfully through the mating and formation stage of courtship; and who have decided not simply to marry, but to be committed to marriage. Healthy early marriage is defined as two individuals who have successfully mastered the early tasks of marriage including reconciling ideal and real mate images; who have achieved a self and couple identity and a satisfying degree of marital intimacy; and who can demonstrate the ability for collaborative decision-making about work, recreation, and procreation.
Research on the challenges of raising teenage sons and daughters will include the exploration of the legacy of slavery; cultural and contextual factors impacting marriage; black male and female relationships; and societal expectations about marriage including marriage and divorce rates and their influence on teens and young adults. We will also review research on protective factors that foster resilience within African American marriages including the legacy of family values and cultural and spiritual strengths of marriage. Moreover, this research will include legacies of positive male and female relationships, collaborative styles, compatibility within couples, early marital life cycle stages, and extended family and network or “village” connections.
Other research focuses on parental involvement in the lives of children and its impact on child development and functioning. Attention will be given to discipline and parenting styles, grandparental involvement, and neighborhood and peer influences and their impact on the development of children.
Finally, we will summarize best practices for preparing teens and young adults for healthy marriage and for fostering positive identity formation and responsible sexual activity. Key practices to be explored are ways of helping teens and young adults examine their self perceptions, mate expectations, and sources of these perceptions and expectations. Ways of making concrete the role of communalism, incorporating modeling of healthy female and male relationships, and fostering spirituality in marriage will be presented. Key illustrations will be taken from case study material derived from the Youth Hope Builders Program at the Interdenominational Theological Center.