scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

Just Doing What They Gotta Do Single Black Custodial Fathers Coping With the Stresses and Reaping the Rewards of Parenting

30 Jun 2009-Journal of Family Issues (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 30, Iss: 10, pp 1311-1338
TL;DR: For single African American custodial fathers, parenting stress is exacerbated by the cultural expectation that Black fathers are “normally” absent and by the clustering of stresses that Black men are more likely to encounter as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: For single African American custodial fathers, parenting stress is exacerbated by the cultural expectation that Black fathers are “normally” absent and by the clustering of stresses that Black men are more likely to encounter. This sample of African American fathers have used a repertoire of problem-focused and cognitive coping strategies, including some that are frequently considered “culturally specific.” Twenty Black single custodial fathers are interviewed and their narratives are analyzed for concepts and thematic categories related to stress and coping. Their narratives indicate that certain strategies are avoided because (a) these strategies are not available to them and (b) they desire to present themselves as independent and competent, thus resisting stereotypes and building a sense of efficacy.

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A life course framework is used to consider how parenting and childlessness influence well-being throughout the adult life course and how the impact of parenthood on well- being depends on marital status, gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.
Abstract: This article reviews recent research (1999 – 2009) on the effects of parenthood on wellbeing. We use a life course framework to consider how parenting and childlessness influence well-being throughout the adult life course. We place particular emphasis on social contexts and how the impact of parenthood on well-being depends on marital status, gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. We also consider how recent demographic shifts lead to new family arrangements that have implications for parenthood and well-being. These include stepparenting, parenting of grandchildren, and childlessness across the life course.

488 citations


Cites background from "Just Doing What They Gotta Do Singl..."

  • ...Single fathers may encounter unique stressors and use coping strategies specific to those stressors (Cole, 2009)....

    [...]

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: The authors discuss key sociological perspectives, such as stress process and life course theories, to illuminate the patterning of stressors impinging on parents, the resources they are able to bring to parenting, and ultimately, the well-being of parents and their children.
Abstract: From a sociological perspective, parenting stress occurs in economic, social, and cultural contexts in which some parents are more disadvantaged than others. In this chapter, we discuss key sociological perspectives, such as stress process and life course theories, to illuminate the patterning of stressors impinging on parents, the resources they are able to bring to parenting, and ultimately, the well-being of parents and their children. Parents’ social class, race-ethnicity, gender, and other statuses are critical to understanding the types and levels of problems they experience, and the supports that they have in the parenting process. Future directions for the sociological study of parenting stress are articulated.

46 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results revealed that the theory of planned behavior can be useful in examining paternal involvement and should be used in future research to enhance the fatherhood literature.
Abstract: Implicit in much of the fatherhood discourse is the assumption that if fathers want to take an active role in their children's lives, they could and would do so. While research has highlighted the factors associated with fathers' involvement, very few, if any, of these studies have been guided by a theory that accounts for both fathers' involvement intentions and their ability to follow through on those intentions. The theory of planned behavior and its emphasis on attitudes, the beliefs of significant others, and whether one has control over engaging in behavior is a conceptual fit to respond to questions related to the complex nature of paternal involvement. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, the purpose of this study was to test the utility of the theory of planned behavior in predicting fathers' involvement intentions and reports of involvement. The results revealed that the theory of planned behavior can be useful in examining paternal involvement and should be used in future research to enhance the fatherhood literature.

43 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A videotape fatherhood intervention is developed: Building Bridges to Fatherhood, which uses Aranda's framework for community-based nursing intervention development to design the intervention and reflects fathers' insights on program structure and content, fathers' commitment to their children and communities, and the benefits they garnered from Council participation.
Abstract: Because interventions developed in partnership with African American fathers not residing with their children are virtually non-existent, existing interventions fail to address the multiple factors that constrain these fathers' positive involvement with their children. We developed a videotape fatherhood intervention: Building Bridges to Fatherhood. In collaboration with a Fathers Advisory Council composed of 12 African American fathers, we used Aranda's framework for community-based nursing intervention development to design the intervention. Data from 13 focus group meetings show Advisory Council members' insights on program structure and content, fathers' commitment to their children and communities, and the benefits they garnered from Council participation. The implications for involving fathers in intervention development include using relevant language, vernacular, and interpersonal interactions.

33 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined Black fathers' involvement with their children among men in coresident family formations and found that although Black married fathers and Black unwed cohabitating fathers report similar levels of involvement, regression analyses indicate that there are distinct predictors for each family formation.
Abstract: Increasing fathers’ involvement with their children has become a priority in recent years. Marriage promotion programs have been offered as the primary vehicles for increasing paternal involvement. Although marriage is likely to provide fathers with increased access and opportunity for paternal involvement, much less is known about the ways in which cohabitation, an increasingly popular coresident family formation, serves to facilitate paternal involvement. Therefore, this study examined Black fathers’ involvement with their children among men in coresident family formations. The data for this study were drawn from a sample of 617 Black fathers participating in the 5-year follow-up data collection wave of the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study. The results revealed that although Black married fathers and Black unwed cohabitating fathers report similar levels of involvement, regression analyses indicate that there are distinct predictors for each family formation. Implications for fatherhood resea...

25 citations


Cites background from "Just Doing What They Gotta Do Singl..."

  • ..., 2000), moral teaching (Coles, 2001), assisting with schoolwork, holding and feeding infants, participating in decision making (Roopnarine, 2004), and racial socialization that encourages children to be strong, independent people who are aware of racism but will not allow it to stand in the way of their success (Coles, 2009; McAdoo, 2000)....

    [...]

  • ...…with schoolwork, holding and feeding infants, participating in decision making (Roopnarine, 2004), and racial socialization that encourages children to be strong, independent people who are aware of racism but will not allow it to stand in the way of their success (Coles, 2009; McAdoo, 2000)....

    [...]

References
More filters
Book
01 Jan 1967
TL;DR: In this paper, the discovery of grounded theory is discussed and grounded theory can be found in the form of a grounded theory discovery problem, where the root cause of the problem is identified.
Abstract: The discovery of grounded theory , The discovery of grounded theory , کتابخانه مرکزی دانشگاه علوم پزشکی تهران

22,245 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The contrasts between two approaches to coping are focused on, one that emphasizes style—that is, it treats coping as a personality characteristic—and another that emphasizes process, efforts to manage stress that change over time and are shaped by the adaptational context out of which it is generated.
Abstract: In this essay in honor of Donald Oken, I emphasize coping as a key concept for theory and research on adaptation and health. My focus will be the contrasts between two approaches to coping, one that emphasizes style—that is, it treats coping as a personality characteristic—and another that emphasizes process—that is, efforts to manage stress that change over time and are shaped by the adaptational context out of which it is generated. I begin with an account of the style and process approaches, discuss their history briefly, set forth the principles of a process approach, describe my own efforts at measurement, and define coping and its functions from a process standpoint. This is followed by a digest of major generalizations that resulted from coping process research. The essay concludes with a discussion of special issues of coping measurement, in particular, the limitations of both coping style and process approaches and how these limitations might be dealt with. There has been a prodigious volume of coping research in the last decade or two, which I can only touch on very selectively. In this essay, I also ignore a host of important developmental issues that have to do with the emergence of coping and its cognitive and motivational bases in infants, as well as a growing literature on whether, how, and why the coping process changes with aging.

3,082 citations


"Just Doing What They Gotta Do Singl..." refers background in this paper

  • ...That is, for instance, particular strategy may have a positive moral outcome but simultaneously a poor social or physical outcome (Lazarus, 1993)....

    [...]

  • ...More recently, coping theory has defined coping as ongoing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage external and/or internal demands that are perceived as taxing a person’s resources (Lazarus, 1993)....

    [...]

Book
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The state-of-the-art in child psychotherapy with children and adolescents is described in this paper, where the authors present a review of the state of the art in the field.
Abstract: Continuities and Discontinuities in Antisocial Behavior from Childhood to Adult Life B. Maughan, M. Rutter. Psychotherapy Outcome Research with Children and Adolescents: The State of the Art J.R. Weisz, et al. Child Psychotherapy Process Research R.L. Russell, S.R. Shirk. Parent-Child Interaction Approaches to the Treatment of Child Behavior Problems R. Foote, et al. Children's Perception of Physical Symptoms: The Example of Asthma S. Rietveld, J.M. Prins. Common Feeding Problems in Young Children K.S. Budd, C.S. Chugh. New Developments in Assessing Pediatric Anxiety Disorders J.S. March, A.M. Albano. Conceptualization and Measurement of Coping in Children and Adolescents T.S. Ayers, et al. New Developments in Services Delivery Research for Children, Adolescents, and Their Families A.J. Pumariega, S. Glover. Index.

1,930 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a model of the relationship between stress and identity, and show that in a variety of situations known to produce stress, stress results from a common mechanism: disruption of the identity process.
Abstract: Social stress can be understood by incorporating interruption theory as developed in research on stress into a model of identity processes drawn from identity theory. From this perspective, social stress results from interruption of the feedback loop that maintains identity processes. I discuss four mechanisms of interruption of identity processes: broken identity loops, interference between identity systems, over-controlled identity systems, and the invocation of episodic identities. Each of these four mechanisms is associated with conditions known to produce feelings of distress. Finally, I discuss how personal evaluation relates to identity processes and distress, and how distress can lead to changes in identity. T hirty years ago inldentity andAnxiety, Stein, Vidich and White (1960) expressed the concern that the advent of a mass society would lead to a "loss of identity" and hence to widespread anxiety or stress. Today, research on social stress is more likely to emphasize the excessive demands and pressures arising from the many roles and identities that people maintain (Holroyd and Lazarus 1982; House 1974). While the implicit contradiction between these contrasting themes of too few or too many identities has not yet been resolved, interest in the relationship between stress or anxiety and identity has grown. In this paper, I propose a model of the relationship between stress and identity. I show that in a variety of situations known to produce stress, stress results from a common mechanism: disruption of the identity process. The importance of this common mechanism is two-fold. First, from the point of view of identity theory, it underlines the importance of understanding identity as a continuous process rather than as a state or trait of an individual. Second, it gives a focus to research on coping and problem solving as mechanisms for dealing with anxiety and distress. While Thoits (1991) has recently suggested that life events related to identities are more likely to produce distress than other life events, the present paper presents a model that helps to clarify this link.

1,583 citations


"Just Doing What They Gotta Do Singl..." refers background in this paper

  • ...The more an individual receives feedback from others that is incongruent with or threatens a valued identity, the more stress he or she will feel, and his or her sense of esteem and efficacy will be reduced (Burke, 1991)....

    [...]

  • ...The concept of identity stress proffered by Thoits (1991) and Burke (1991) would help to explain this latter finding....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI

1,437 citations


"Just Doing What They Gotta Do Singl..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Hence, as suggested by McCubbin et al. (1980), McCubbin and Patterson (1983), and Smith and Smith (1981), these fathers’ parenting is accompanied by a clustering of stressors, both in the transition to parenthood and in the subsequent parenting activity itself....

    [...]