Low-income African American fathers' involvement in children's lives: Implications for practitioners

Date
2006Journal
Journal of Family Social WorkPublisher
Taylor & FrancisType
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We were interested in how low-income African American fathers of 12-year-old children in families identified as high risk viewed their role as father. Four focus group discussions involving 19 fathers were conducted. We had four key questions: (1) what the men perceived as the children's needs, (2) how they met those needs, (3) what motivated them to be involved, and (4) what barriers they faced. The fathers emphasized the children's need for love and support, and were concerned about materialism, violence, and promiscuity as they struggled to instill "good" values. They described the challenges of raising children in dangerous environments, and concerns about their daughters and their sexuality. Some men found it difficult to be a parent figure without being the biological father or by not living with the child. Many of their views on parenting were similar to those reported elsewhere by white as well as middle class men. Implications for practitioners are included. Copyright 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.Sponsors
Howard Dubowitz and Wendy Lane are affiliated with Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. Geoffrey L. Greif is affiliated with School of Social Work, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD. Tina K. Jensen is affiliated with Norwegian Center for Violence & Traumatic Stress Studies, Oslo, Norway. Michael E. Lamb is affiliated with Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK. Address correspondence to: Geoffrey L. Greif, University of Maryland School of Social Work, 525 West Redwood Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 (E-mail: ggreif@ssw. umaryland.edu). This research was supported by Grant 90CA1401 from the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Identifier to cite or link to this item
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-33845646030&doi=10.1300%2fJ039v10n01_02&partnerID=40&md5=17ea3658e2ef89ba7a172d5eef242583; http://hdl.handle.net/10713/11889ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1300/J039v10n01_02