class 4AA Children: Complexities of individual & collective experiences

Question 1

African American Family:

Answer 1

a group of people who are biologically and spiritually bonded or connected and whose members’ relations to each other and the outside world are governed by a particular set of cultural beliefs, historical experiences, and behaviors

Question 2

Family Formation

Answer 2

• For many family households begin not with marriage but with birth of a child
• 72% are born into families where mother is not married to the biological father
• More than 50% are headed by single women

Question 3

Differential Birthrates

Answer 3

• Black women tend to begin having children early but complete their families while relatively young.
• The AA community doesn’t view adolescent pregnancy so negatively and assist and play vital role in the rearing of the children

Question 4

2000 Census Poverty Rates

Answer 4

• 35.2% of single black mother households are poor with 7.8% of black married parent households.
• Poverty rate is increasing in 2012-2013
• More percentage of black children live in poverty with limited resources (including individuality and privacy).
• Therefore, they are more at risk for learning problems, dropping out, being left back a grade

Question 5

Strengths: Interpersonal Relationships

Answer 5

• Focus: particularly on Parent-Child relationships
• Parents seldom make their love for their child a reinforcement contingency
• This relationship could be characterized by parent anger, punishment, and disappointment for the child’s mistakes, failure, and misbehavior without canceling out the love associated with the bond.

Question 6

Discipline of Children varies with social economic classes

Answer 6

• Fathers from working class background use more physical than verbal discipline (Staples)
• AA socialization stresses obedience to adults
• Rearing children in ecologically risky neighborhoods is one of the reasons given for strict obedience to parental authority: an adaptive strategy.

Question 7

Qualities parents encourage in their children

Answer 7

• The importance of self respect and pride and must know about racism
• Understand that fair play may not be reciprocal. E.g. “they’ll get a break, but a black child won’t”
• A good education is top priority
• You don’t know when someone is going to show you overt prejudice

Question 8

All parents have similar tasks that all must complete to help their children develop into self sufficient adults

Answer 8

“The difficulty in raising children to have pride in their ethnic group’s concept when the group is perceived in a negative manner by the wider society.” (McAdoo)

Question 9

A myriad of complex social and educational issues affect Black Children

Answer 9

• The family and the church are key in enhancing the social functioning of the black child.
• Provide the cultural processes that contribute to resilience and healthy functioning. (Height, 2002)

Question 10

African American Grandparents

Answer 10

• many live in close proximity to their married children and their families
• have many opportunities to influence the development of their grandchildren
• grandmothers show more supportive behaviors in mother/grandmother families than mother/father/grandmother families

Question 11

Siblings

Answer 11

• older children play key roles in African American households
• older children often help mother in care of household including taking care of siblings
• can be source of maturation as well as strain for these siblings

Question 12

Substance Abuse among black youth

Answer 12

•evidence indicates that alcohol and drug use is lower than among white youth.
Example
-37% (black) ages 11-17
-2.9% reported use of cocaine at least once vs. 5.1% (white), 6.3%(Hispanics)

•Adverse consequences are more serious:

• 10X more likely to be arrested
• more likely to be sent to prison than treatment program
• more likely to be victims of alcohol related homicide

Question 13

Urban black child’s life spheres (7)

Answer 13

• black child’s development is rooted in person-environment interactions
• there are 7 hierarchically nested life spheres:1) the child
  2) the family or home
  3) the neighborhood
  4) the black community
  5) the white community of business, service, etc. in black communities
  6) the broader community that is non black
  7) social structures e.g. Political, economic