LINEAMIENTOS PARA INTRODUCIR LOS TEMAS PROPUESTOS POR LA ESTRATEGIA

Theoretical Framework

The original theory of generativity is said to be in the interest of entire communities and therefore the absence of generative care threatens the stability of a community (Erikson and Erikson, 1964). This notion is underlined by McAdoo (1981) who wrote of the view of a unique family history that bears the remnants of African culture that has been maintained and is resilient to discrimination. Sudarkasa (1988) highlighted the retention of "kin networks" in modern African American families, whose features are similar to the families of continental Africans. In these networks, the socialisation of the young was the responsibility of the entire (extended) family. White (1991)

argued that traditional white psychology leads to an essentially inappropriate and unsound analysis of black families. He suggested that when the black family is viewed from white middle-class terms of reference, the psychological health of black family life is described in terms of a nuclear family structure of one male and one female parent who live with the child until the child is a young adult. He contrasted this with black families, where the male parent is not consistently visible within the child’s household. This in turn created the illusion of a matriarchal black family by white standards. A closer look at the black family might indeed show that the lone-mother is part of an extended black family. He suggested that not only does white psychology provide an inaccurate description in terms of the matriarchal black family, but may also impose Freudian notions to explain why black children, especially boys, who are reared in lone-mother families have difficulties with their psycho-sexual development and self-esteem. White’s view is that other adult relatives and older siblings who make up the extended family interchange roles, tasks and family functioning in such a way that the child does not learn extremely rigid distinction between male and female. Together these ideas encapsulate the

cultural-vahant theoretical model that will be relied upon in this thesis.

In Sections 1.1.3 and 1.1.4 above, sociological and anthropological research identified that the black ‘extended’ family was the modal black family whereas the ‘nuclear’ family was the modal White/European family. This thesis develops the idea of the black (African) extended family network or ‘kin network’. Diagrams 1A and IB illustrate how this arrangement is potentially protective of the child’s psychological and physical development. The lines

between kin are support pathways. In Diagram 1B, the removal of one node will have a minimal effect in terms of support for the child, but with nuclear families, when the father node is removed, literally half of the child support has gone (see Diagrams 2A and 2B).

Diagram 1A: African kin network Child “Uncle”/ Friend of Father ath er lothei ^ n t ”/ Friend of Mother PatemaT Grandfather Paternal Grandmother Maternal Grandmother

Diagram 1B: * Fatherless’ African kin network Child

Un, [other “Aunt/

Friend of Mother ,un1 Paternal Grandfather Patemal Grandmother Matemal Grandmother Matemal Grandfather

Diagram 2A: Nuclear family Child

Father Mother

Diagram 2B: Fatherless' Nuclear family

Child

Mother

Overarching Hypotheses

I) Although it appears that South Asian families are “more likely” to live in households consisting of two or more families (Matheson and Pullinger, 1999), the black extended family as an adaptation to lone-mothering will emerge as being more prevalent than current official statistics is demonstrating. The functioning of these families will provide a ‘protective shield’ against the potential adversities of non-resident fathering. The empirical testing of the theoretical ‘African kin network’ will be illustrated by: Hypothesis 1a) a higher prevalence of black extended family households compared to white extended family households and/or a higher level of

grandparent-child contact among black children than white children (Pilot Study One and Study One).

Hypothesis 1b) a significant correlation between the non-residence of the black father and the extended family arrangement (Pilot Study One and Study One).

Hypothesis 1c) more positive child outcomes for children reared in black fatherless extended families compared to lone-mother families (Pilot Study One and Study One).

II) The goal of African parenting (mothers and/or fathers) is explicitly to

extend the accomplishments of the children beyond the parents' personal accomplishments (Nwadiore, 1997).

Hypothesis 2a) The level of father involvement will influence the academic accomplishments and psychological development of African/Caribbean children regardless of the residence of the father (Pilot Study One, Study One, Pilot Study Two and Study Two).

Hypothesis 2b) African/Caribbean non-resident fathers will be more involved with the parenting of their children than white fathers (Pilot Study One, Study One, and Study Two).

III) Comparative studies have shown that any negative effects of father absence progressively increase from black lower-class families to white middle-class families being most affected by an absent father, (e.g. Deutsch and Brown, 1964; Wade 1994). In short, socio-economic differences are interpreted as racial/cultural differences (e.g. Schacter, 1979).

Hypothesis 3) Any adverse effects of non-resident black fathering can be