1	Kinship and Family Notes from our text (Chapter 3) Belgrave & Allison, African American Psychology: From Africa to America (2006) Notes by Halford Fairchild February 10, 2009
2	Definitions and Historical Background on Black Families Murdock (1949): Family defined as a social group with common residence, economic cooperation, and reproduction. Reiss (1965): a universal function is the socialization of the young. Hill (1998): a household that provides basic instrumental and expressive functions
3	Definitions (continued) Instrumental functions: providing for physical and material needs. Expressive functions: emotional support and nurturance. 1. An expressive function of the family is: Providing food Providing shelter Providing for the family’s physical needs Providing for the family’s material needs None of the above
4	Definitions: Family Networks Immediate Family – reside in same household (may be multi-generational and extended) Extended family – functionally related with disparate living arrangements. Fictive kin – Not related through marriage or descent, but functionally related and “feel” like family.
5	Quiz item 2 Fictive kin are a person’s Biological parents Brothers or sisters (siblings) Aunts or uncles (parents’ brothers or sisters) Grandparents (parents’ parents) None of the above
6	Historical Approaches W.E.B. DuBois (The Negro American Family, 1908) – importance of “cultural survivals” (as opposed to E. Franklin Frazier) Frazier – slavery as disruptive and having negative consequences. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Nixon era): “tangle of pathology” Strength approaches (Hill, Billingsley, McAdoo)
7	Quiz Item 3 The person who focused on the survival of African cultural patterns in early African American families was Moynihan Frazier Moynihan & Frazier both focused on the family’s cultural strengths DuBois None of the above
8	Family Structure & Function Enslavement – a destruction of Black family life – separating mothers from their children. Breeding for profits. Marriage illegitimate. Post Enslavement (Herbert Gutman, & “nuclear families”) Emancipation and Reconstruction – increase in two-parent families. Migration North (1910-1930). Toward jobs and urban spaces (especially N.E. and Mid West)
9	Quiz Item 4 From 1910 to 1930, a dramatic change occurred in Black family life. This period was marked by: Enslavement Emancipation Reconstruction Migration north All of the above
10	Family Structures, Today Single parent household. Increase in never-married mothers among African Americans (Quiz Item 5). Economic sequelae (consequences) Embedded in structured inequalities (HEW) –poverty, teen pregnancy, foster care (3x more likely) More multi-generational households
11	Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage & Cohabitation Declining marriage rates. Economic autonomy (or lack thereof) Male/female ratios (deaths, incarceration, succumbing to social pathos among men) Schools as female centric Increasing divorce and separation
12	The Extended Family Black families as more “extended” and multi-generational. Grand parenting.
13	Black fathers “Father absence” as due to many factors (frustrations in being financial provider, imprisonization) Related to life satisfaction
14	Africentric perspectives African values persist Spiritness Importance of children Interconnectedness Cooperation & shared responsibility Not dependent on conjugal unions (strong kinship) (Quiz item 6: “all of the above”)
15	Strength and Resiliency Scientific racism: Moynihan’s (1985) “tangle of pathology.” Vs. Robert Hill’s 5 strengths: (1) strong achievement orientation; (2) strong work orientation; (3) flexible family roles; (4) strong kinship bonds; and (5) strong religious orientation.
16	Quiz item 7 Robert Hill (1971) described the strengths of African families. These included: Strong achievement orientation Strong work orientation Flexible family roles Strong kinship bonds Strong religious orientation All of the above
17	Building Strong Families (Parham, et al., 1999) Socialize self-love Positive identity Model healthy family functioning Model successful male-female relationships Surviving difficult periods Develop personal insights
18	Coping and Adjustment Support may be emotional (expressive) Affirmation Acceptance Love Support may be instrumental Financial support Helping with child care Giving advice (cognitive)
19	Quiz Item 8 Family support may be emotional, instrumental, or cognitive. An example of cognitive support would be: Giving love Giving affirmation or acceptance Lending money Helping with child care Giving advice
20	Elder Care More poverty More family supports Less perceived burden Leaning on extended family, including the church
21	Parenting Attitudes and Practices Many differences due to class, but some “race” effects remain after “controlling” for class: Corporal punishment Elder respect More value on “autonomy” or self-reliance
22	Quiz Item 9 The one variable where White and Black parents differ in parenting is in the area of: Warmth Acceptance Expectations Support Autonomy
23	Racial Socialization Making children aware of their racial group membership Mothers more involved Higher education levels matter Not all racial socialization is as ideal as portrayed in text.
24	Discrimination Slavery and Jim Crow (1876-1954) – caste status in employment Current practices: Age at retirement Adoption policies Welfare system Criminal injustice (incarceration)
25	Quiz Item 10 Current Institutional Barriers identified in the text, including all of the following EXCEPT: Age at retirement Adoption policies Welfare system Economic options Inequality in educational opportunity
26	Methodological Issues Ahistorical methods Unidimensional (need to consider historical, cultural, social, economic, political, institutional, psychological factors) Race comparisons (not always valid) Ethnicity and SES confounded