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Carl Bentelspac her (Social Work) and Lori Campbell (Sociology)
2008-2010
“An Analysis of Factors Associated with non Residential Fathering among African American Men: Factors Associated with Frequency of Parent-Child Contact”
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ABSTRACT
Life Course Trajectory of African American Men.
Inadequate education and/or job skills, incarceration, and low wage jobs are major impediments to healthy adjustment in family roles for large numbers of African American men. African American family forms reflect the men’s difficulties, in that over two -thirds of children are born out-of-wedlock, and a majority of children are raised in single-parent, female-headed family systems. Considering the important contributions fathers can make to the positive development of their children, non-residential fathering has become an important component of child-rearing in the African American community. However, the extent to which young black men who father children out-of-wedlock become active, non-residential parents has not been sufficiently studied. In addition, little is known about their parental role performance as they progress from early into middle adult life stages, and the personal factors that are associated with active or inactive parenting. Using Bowman & Foreman’s (1995) role strain adaptation model, the authors examine the life course trajectory of the men’s parental role performance .
