Color him father: Generative parenting among low-income, urban-residing, coresidential Black fathers.

Abstract

In social science and popular parlance, Black low-income fathers continue to be represented as largely absent, disengaged, and negligent. These negative representations belie emerging qualitative and quantitative empirical data that demonstrate Black fathers, across lines of class, are constructively and responsibly involved in the lives of their children. The present study used qualitative data from 2 focus groups (n ϭ 6 and n ϭ 5) and 9 individual interviews with low-income, urban-residing Black men who are coresiding caregivers to young children (M child age ϭ 47.9 months, SD ϭ 11.4) to clarify how these men conceive of and pursue positive parenting. Caregivers were recruited from 11 Head Start programs in New York City. Interviews lasted 90 -120 min and were transcribed verbatim. Content and thematic analysis of verbatim transcripts yielded 23 thematic codes related to men's views of positive parenting. Themes revealed that fathers constructed positive parenting as a "generative" enterprise. However, generativity for these fathers reflected different concerns from generative parenting as conceived in extant literatures. In particular, our findings suggest the need to expand existing understandings of generative parenting by attending to challenges of emotional honesty, authenticity, dignity, and community. Public Significance StatementOver the past decade, more than $100 million in federal funding has been targeted to promoting positive fathering, particularly among low-income Black fathers. However, the success of such initiatives depends on leveraging how low-income Black men conceive of and enact positive parenting. This study contributes to the public good by offering evidence of men's conceptualizations and enactments of what it means to parent well.

Evaluation of brief online interventions to increase sense of purpose for fathers living in the United States.

“…Because fatherhood research has been influenced by centrism with respect to White, middle-class, heterosexual fathers in the United States (McKelley & Rochlen, 2016), there is an increasing need to consider and address life circumstances impacting fathers of marginalized groups (e.g., low-income families, gay men, men of color, immigrants, and refugees) that may place more obstacles in the way of these fathers' involvement in their children's lives. Future research on fathers and purpose should more thoroughly address the experiences of marginalized fathers with respect to race and ethnicity as recent research calls attention to the need to situate Black fathers' paternal engagement within their larger racialized contexts (Cooper et al, 2021), and also addresses racial-cultural socialization for fathers and their children's ethnocultural identities and needs (Mattis et al, 2021). Additionally, father-oriented interventions may need to be modified to address the unique backgrounds of fathers from underrepresented groups.…”

Fathering: New perspectives, paradigms, and possibilities.

“…Many papers in this issue strived to break with tradition and unabashedly brought the voices of men forward to uncover new areas that parenting researchers may want to heed in the future. In this regard, you will see an emphasis on how men view paternal warmth, positive parenting, and what makes a loving father (Li, 2021; Mattis et al, 2021; Schoppe-Sullivan et al, 2021), which are views not often seen in the literature on parenting and children’s development.…”

“…The call for papers for this special issue went out in June 2019 requesting papers be submitted that could address any number of topics to advance fatherhood scholarship in line with these core issues, and the resulting papers collected in this special issue have successfully accomplished this goal. Specifically, we asked authors to consider submitting papers that included understanding fathering beliefs and parenting behaviors among diverse groups of men from under-represented, minority families in the U.S., including immigrant fathers, as well as an understanding of fathering within and across cultures (see Bureau et al, 2021; Carone et al, 2021; Cooper et al, 2021; Fagan, 2021; Lee et al, 2021; Li, 2021; Mattis et al, 2021; McKee et al, 2021; Planalp et al, 2021). We also invited papers with a focus on constructions of masculinity and gender role ideologies as they determined fathering and father–child relationships (see Cooper et al, 2021; Fagan, 2021; Holmes et al, 2021; Li, 2021; Mattis et al, 2021; Schoppe-Sullivan et al, 2021), and a consideration of gender differences and comparisons across mothers and fathers in the roles, activities, interactions and relationships established with their children across different periods of the life span (see Bureau et al, 2021; Holmes et al, 2021; Lee et al, 2021; McKee et al, 2021; Temmen & Crockett, 2021), as well as examining different means of family formation for fathers from diverse groups such as gay and bisexual fathers, adoptive fathers, step fathers, and fathers raising children as a result of artificial reproductive technologies (Carone et al, 2021).…”

Socialization and Parenting in Underrepresented Families: A Commentary on this Special Issue Section

“…Although there has been increased representation of fathers in broader socialization and parenting research, studies with racialized fathers remain underrepresented and often deficit‐focused. Scholars have articulated the need for studies that use more contextual and strength‐based approaches to understand racialized fathers' experiences and what this might mean for parenting and family processes (Coleman et al, 2019; Cooper et al, 2021; Mattis et al, 2021; McAdoo & McAdoo, 2002). Contributing to this discussion, Dilworth‐Bart et al and Williams qualitatively examine parenting and socialization among Black fathers.…”