The Perception of the African American Family Structure and How it Affects Individuals

Academics at the Collegiate Level

Kala Stokes, Alexus Johnson-Mobley, Sierra Dixon, and Jazmyné Nero

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

 Introduction

In every race there are different family structures and parenting methods. In the African-

American community, family structure has been a popular topic that has been examined by

experts and mass media. It has even become a topic of discussion in public policy debates. The

family structure of African-Americans has also been surrounded by stereotypes of a “standard”

family life. One of the biggest studies recently is the amount of black children that come from a

one parent home. According to the U.S. Census Bureau only 38.7 percent of African-Americans

live with both of their parents. This is due to a number of factors, the most common place

occurrence being parental separation.

A stable family structure is an essential part in a child’s developmental phase. Take

Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs into consideration; the essential idea behind this systemic

structure is to achieve the ultimate goal of self fulfilment. To further advance on the scale of self

fulfilment, basic human needs must be met. Meeting these needs in the African-American family

structure can be crucial to ensuring a child is reaching their full potential. The lower three levels

of the pyramid all include factors that should be included in any family structure. The

physiological needs of food, water, warmth and rest stem from the household and the

parent/guardians who would be the provider. The next level addresses the need for safety and

security. At the third level, the hierarchy states that belongingness and love needs are important

in building a child’s socialness and having meaningful relationships. Children need consistency,

security, affection, and the basics for survival to be a foundation in their home life to help build a

strong emotional state. The family structure of the African-American community should not

work any differently than any other, each household needs those needs met according to the

hierarchy to reach a level of fulfillment. The basis for a child’s academic performance is based
around the family structure; the African-American family structure has shaped generations of

young black children’s future and their worldly views. Through research, and student based

surveys the effects of the african-american family structure will be examined.

Literature Review

Comparing other races' family structure is imperative in the analysis of discovering how

the African American family structure differs and its academic impact on the children involved.

To understand the black family structure today we have to understand the history of the black

family structure. Slavery ultimately resulted in disorginization and instability within the African

American family structure (DuBois, 1899). The byproduct of slavery was the dismantlement of

the black family, slavemasters would often separate men from women, married or not and

women from their own children, This would, in turn, impact the child in a negative way by

taking away their sense of security and safety. History has a major impact on the perception of

the black family structure in the 21st century drastically.

From 1880 through 1960, black children were two to three times more likely to reside

without one or both parents than were white children. In recent years, the race differential in

parental absence has grown. Also, blacks have had a consistently higher percentage of extended

households than whites, (ASA ,1994) extended family is classified as “Living with family that

goes beyond your nuclear family” ,such as growing up in a household with a single parent and

other relatives. From the 1800s to about 30% of black children ages 0-14 years old resided

without one or both parents. By contrast, only 10% of white children between those ages resided

without one or both parents. Specifically from 1960-1980 parentlessness and single parenthood

rose sharply among both blacks and white households. (U.S Bureau of Census, 1980) However,
Black households steadily continue to have a higher rate of single parent households than whites

even with the sharp rise during that time period.

Children's upbringing within different family structures plays a vital role in how they

perceive themselves, their behavior patterns, and academic abilities. Living in an African

American single parent household has been associated with delinquency, alcohol and substance

use, lower self esteem, psychiatric problems, earlier sexual activity and dropping out of school,

due to lack of authority within the family structure. (Steinberg, 1987). As opposed to living in a

two parent African American household. Only 57 percent of African-American students have

access to the full range of math and science courses necessary for college readiness. ( Bridges,

2017).

Economic structure plays an important role in the lives of African American families and

degree seeking students. A single parent household has the lowest level of income, compared to

married individuals with great financial stability, yet multigenerational and two-parent families

were not statistically better than single-parent families. (Williams, 2000). Whether or not an

African American child stays in a two-parent household or not can contribute to how they grow

up, especially if they live in low-income areas where they see a lot of crime, poverty and various

other things. There are these things called neighborhood effect theories that imply “children who

live in impoverished neighborhoods are at risk of dropping out of school, ultimately ending up

doing delinquent things “ (Jarret, 1997) Jarret also did studies where there were parenting and

family strategies involved guiding them away from the inner-city struggles. Kids that had those

skills ended up completing highschool. There are a lot of African American children are without

fathers, in fact, according to the Huffington Post in 2017 “70% of the African American
community is raised by single women.” 1.7 million children live without their fathers and there

are 2.5 million children that live with their fathers.

The role of a parent is very important to young African Americans, whether its the

mother or the father each specific role plays a huge part in raising a child. Proverbs 22:6 says

“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he shall not depart from it” if a

father is out of a child's life the mom can and will most likely step pup to the plate as much as

she can but there are some things that she won't be able to teach her children that a man can

teach them and vice versa for a man if the female is missing out of the child's life. There are

some fathers that want to be in their child's life but cannot do that due to certain circumstances

like child support.

Fathers who want to be there for their children desire to teach them about different ways

to handle a situation that could happen in an urban neighborhood. A lot of low-income urban

parents more specifically fathers want to be good responsible fathers but they feel like they can't

due to the limitations and structural challenges they face when trying to do so. Given these

facts, I don’t think that absent African American parents want to be absent from their child's life

on purpose. I believe that some parents (mostly fathers) have no idea how to be parents or not

knowing how to handle the responsibilities of having a child because they never had a true parent

to learn from themselves ultimately ending in them running from their responsibilities.

Slavery has a historic link to the dismantling of black families in America. Black families

have been subjected to different methods of separation since times of slavery. Slave owners

purposely separated mothers from the children and fathers from their sons during the slave trade

in order to reak down the family structure of slaves. It has also been observed that black families

are typically apart of extended households. For example, the families are not always direct and
sometimes you see individuals living with distant family members because of financial needs

and other circumstances. Single parented ness rose in both white and black families during the

time period between the 1960s and the 1980s but single parented ness has always risen at a

steady and much higher rate amongst black families. These single parent homes are also mainly

associated with delinquency, substance and alcohol abuse, low self esteem, and other negative

ailments. All of these factors contribute to the unstable structure of the african american family.

References

Amato, P. R. (2005). The Impact of Family Formation Change on the Cognitive, Social, and
Emotional Well-Being of the Next Generation. The Future of Children, 15(2), 75–96. doi:
10.1353/foc.2005.0012

Hogan, D. P., & Kitagawa, E. M. (1985). The Impact of Social Status, Family Structure, and
Neighborhood on the Fertility of Black Adolescents. American Journal of Sociology,
90(4), 825–855. doi: 10.1086/228146

Jarrett, R. L. (n.d.). African American Family and Parenting Strategies in Impoverished

Neighborhoods. Retrieved from
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1024717803273

Levs, J. (2017, July 27). No, Most Black Kids Are Not Fatherless. Retrieved from
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/no-most-black-kids-are-no_b_11109876

Ruggles, S. (1994). The Origins of African-American Family Structure. American

Sociological Review, 59(1), 136. doi: 10.2307/2096137
Salem, D. A., Zimmerman, M. A., & Notaro, P. C. (1998). Effects of Family Structure,
Family Process, and Father Involvement on Psychosocial Outcomes among African
American Adolescents. Family Relations, 47(4), 331. doi: 10.2307/585264

Threlfall, J. M., Seay, K. D., & Kohl, P. L. (2013). The parenting role of African-American
fathers in the context of urban poverty. Journal of Children and Poverty, 19(1), 45–61.
doi: 10.1080/10796126.2013.764846

Vereen, L. G. (2007, July). African American Family Structure: A Review of the Literature -
Linwood G. Vereen, 2007. Retrieved from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1066480707301504

(2016, December 31). Zenitha Prince. Retrieved from https://www.afro.com/census-bureau-

higher-percentage-black-children-live-single-mothers/