Family Values and Outcomes for Children

Abstract

African American families are presently undergoing so many changes one cannot help but wonder if they are holding onto the same values they held in the past. Have changes in traditional family structural arrangements and the high number of children living in nontraditional families caused African American parents and their children to adopt a different set of values today, or have family structures survived relatively intact from one generation to another? Of course, there is no typical African American family. No one family type represents all of us. Yet, while research has shown that extended families remain important support networks for African Americans, the members of these networks are often less able-due to increasing economic, social, and personal stresses-to respond to family members in need (Edelman, 1987). We know that many components of African American children's lives have remained the same, but there have also been many changes. While our children have been found to possess generally positive self-concepts (Cross, 1991), they still tend to favor non-Black images when they are in preschool, moving on to more positive views of Blackness as they approach middle childhood (McAdoo, 1985). African American children presently watch more television than any other group of young viewers, yet we are aware of the negative racial and gender images in the mass media that present a view of Blackness that is far from positive. Other signs that indicate a change in values and reveal the impact of these negative perceptions are the high rates of teenage pregnancy, low levels of academic achievement, and increases in drug abuse among our students. Regardless, we must not be fooled by the negative statistics and focus only on the problems. Rather, we should focus on the positive outcomes that can be achieved by African American parents and children. As we look at family values and outcomes for children, we must keep four points in mind: (1) Children are highly valued in African American communities. (2) We African Americans continue to value our families and our extended families as well as other support networks of relatives and fictive kin.