Two-parent African American Families Research Articles

Improving Couples’ Relationship Functioning Leads to Improved Coparenting: A Randomized Controlled Trial With Rural African American Couples

Family-centered prevention programs for couples with children are being increasingly disseminated, with the hope that improving couples’ romantic relationships will lead to other benefits for families. To date, however, it is unclear whether these interventions do in fact yield these benefits. The current study addressed this gap by examining whether postintervention improvements in couples’ relationship functioning following family-centered prevention predicted longer-term change in coparenting, and whether postintervention improvements in coparenting predicted longer-term change in relationship functioning. We used four waves of data collected over 2 years from 346 rural African American couples with an early adolescent child who participated in a randomized controlled trial of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) program, an intervention designed to promote strong couple, coparenting, and parent–child relationships in two-parent African American families. Results indicated that ProSAAF had significant short-term positive effects on both romantic relationship functioning and coparenting and that these effects did not differ in magnitude. Over time, however, only romantic relationship functioning postintervention was positively associated with long-term changes in coparenting; coparenting postintervention was not associated with long-term changes in relationship functioning and this association was significantly weaker than the other pathway. These findings support a key premise underlying relationship enhancement programs for parents, indicating that improving couples’ romantic relationship functioning can have longer-term benefits for the coparenting relationship as well. Further research examining long-term parent, child, and family outcomes following family-centered prevention for couples and the mechanisms of change underlying these outcomes is needed.

The Protecting Strong African American Families Program: a Randomized Controlled Trial with Rural African American Couples.

This study presents results from a randomized controlled trial of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) program, a family-centered intervention designed to promote strong couple, coparenting, and parent-child relationships in two-parent African American families. A total of 346 African American couples with an early adolescent child participated; all families lived in rural, low-income communities in the southern USA. Intent-to-treat growth curve analyses involving three waves and spanning 17months indicated that ProSAAF participants, compared with control participants, reported greater improvements in relationship communication, confidence, satisfaction, partner support, coparenting, and parenting. More than 80% of the couples attended all six of the in-home, facilitator-led sessions; costs to implement the program averaged $1739 per family. The findings inform the ongoing debate surrounding prevention programs for low-income and ethnic minority couples.

Parental experiences of racial discrimination and youth racial socialization in two-parent African American families.

Parents experiencing racial discrimination are likely to transmit racial socialization messages to their children to protect them from future injustices. This study was conducted to better understand the role of parents' racial discrimination in their racial socialization practices for 2-parent African American families. Using a sample from the Promoting Strong African American Families (N = 322 couples) program, we examined the effects of experienced discrimination on one's own and one's partner's racial socialization practices with male (n = 154) and female (n = 168) offspring. Multiple-group actor-partner interdependence models showed that racial discrimination was associated with racial socialization practices. In addition, maternal experiences of discrimination had stronger relations to socialization messages relayed to daughters and greater paternal experiences of discrimination had stronger relations to socialization messages given to sons. This study demonstrates variability in how male and female children in African American families are socialized as a result of their parents' experiences with racial discrimination.

Sibling Relationships and Adolescent Adjustment: Longitudinal Associations in Two-Parent African American Families.

Sibling relationships have been described as love-hate relationships by virtue of their emotional intensity, but we know little about how sibling positivity and negativity operate together to affect youth adjustment. Accordingly, this study charted the course of sibling positivity and negativity from age 10 to 18 in African American sibling dyads and tested whether changes in relationship qualities were linked to changes in adolescents' internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Participants were consecutively-born siblings [at Time 1, older siblings averaged 14.03 (SD=1.80) years of age, 48% female; younger siblings averaged 10.39 (SD=1.07) years of age, 52% female] and two parents from 189 African American families. Data were collected via annual home interviews for 3years. A series of multi-level models revealed that sibling positivity and sibling negativity declined across adolescence, with no significant differences by sibling dyad gender constellation. Controlling for age-related changes as well as time-varying parent-adolescent relationship qualities, changes in sibling negativity, but not positivity, were positively related to changes in adolescents' depressive symptoms and risky behaviors. Like parent-adolescent relationships, sibling relationships displayed some distancing across adolescence. Nevertheless, sibling negativity remained a uniquely important relational experience for African American adolescents' adjustment.

Academic Growth Trajectories and Family Relationships among African American Youth.

This study explored trajectories of African American youths' academic functioning and assessed whether changes in parent-adolescent relationships were associated with changes in youths' academic functioning. The data were drawn from a three-year longitudinal study of gender socialization and development in two-parent African American families and included 197 families. Findings revealed gender differences in achievement trajectories and indicated that boys not only had lower levels of academic achievement compared to girls, but also experienced steeper declines in school self-esteem during adolescence. Changes in parent-adolescent relationship quality were linked to changes in academic functioning: Increases in conflict were related to decreases in GPA, school bonding, and school self-esteem and increases in warmth were related to increases in school bonding and school self-esteem.

Parent–Adolescent Relationship Qualities and Adolescent Adjustment in Two‐Parent African American Families

Using multi-informant data from 134 two-parent African American families, the goals of this study were to (a) describe parent - adolescent warmth and shared time as a function of parent and youth gender and (b) assess links between these indices of relationship quality and adolescent adjustment. Mixed-model ANCOVAs revealed that mothers reported warmer relationships with adolescents than fathers, and both parents reported warmer relationships with younger versus older offspring. Interparental differences in time spent with sons and daughters and older and younger siblings were also found. Tests of multilevel models indicated that greater maternal warmth was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and less risky behavior for sons, and more paternal warmth and shared time with fathers were associated with less risky behavior in youth. Discussion highlights the utility of cultural ecological and family systems perspectives for understanding parent-adolescent relationships and youth adjustment in African American families.

The trajectory of coparenting satisfaction in African American families: The impact of sociocultural stressors and supports.

Based in family systems and ecological perspectives, this study expands the scope of coparenting research by: (a) charting the trajectory of coparenting satisfaction for mothers and fathers in two-parent African American families during their offspring's adolescence, and (b) examining the role of sociocultural stressors and supports for coparenting satisfaction. Participants were 192 African American mothers and fathers who reported on their coparenting satisfaction and both economic and cultural stressors (economic strain and racial discrimination), and supports (socioeconomic resources and religiosity). Longitudinal growth curves revealed declines in coparenting satisfaction for fathers but not mothers over the course of offspring's adolescence. Findings were generally consistent with hypotheses that stressors were negatively, and supports, positively, related to average levels of coparenting satisfaction. Findings for racial discrimination and income differed by parent and highlighted gender dynamics within couple relationships. We discuss implications for understanding of normative family processes in African American families as these unfold within both family and broader sociocultural contexts.

Adolescents’ Experiences of Discrimination and Parent–Adolescent Relationship Quality

Grounded in a cultural-ecological perspective, the goals of this study were to examine the implications of young adolescents' experiences of racial discrimination for the quality of relationships with mothers and fathers and to test whether sociocultural processes, such as youth ethnic identity and parents' racial socialization strategies, moderated these linkages. Participants were older and younger adolescents in 176 two-parent African American families who completed questionnaires about their discrimination experiences, ethnic identities, and warmth and conflict in their relationships with parents. Mothers and fathers reported on cultural socialization and preparation for bias practices. Consistent with an emotional spillover hypothesis, discrimination was linked to poorer relationship quality with both mothers and fathers. Youth ethnic identity and mothers' racial socialization moderated discrimination-relationship linkages. Findings were consistent with prior research on discrimination and highlight the protective nature of some sociocultural processes for family relationships.

The Nature and Correlates of Sibling Influence in Two‐Parent African American Families

Guided by research and theory on sibling similarities and differences, this study explored the nature and correlates of two processes of sibling influence-social learning and sibling differentiation-during adolescence. Participants included two adolescent-aged siblings (M = 16.29 years for older siblings and M = 12.59 years for younger siblings, respectively) from 166 two-parent African American families. Significant nonlinear associations between these two influence dynamics and some sibling relationship qualities were discovered. For sibling differentiation, but not social learning, these links were further moderated by sex composition of the sibling dyad. Additional analyses revealed that youths' reports of social learning were generally linked to smaller differences between siblings, whereas differentiation processes were linked to greater differences in siblings' individual characteristics.

Characteristics and correlates of sibling relationships in two-parent African American families.

The authors studied sibling relationships of African American youths and family and youth characteristics linked to sibling dynamics. Participants were fathers, mothers, and 2 siblings (M = 14.04 and M = 10.34 years of age) from 172 working-middle class 2-parent families. Cluster analyses of data collected in home interviews revealed 3 sibling relationship types: positive, negative, and distant. Parent education was lower, parent religiosity higher, and parent-child relationships more positive in the positive group; maternal discrimination experiences were higher in the negative group; youth ethnic identity was stronger in the positive group; and youth depression and risky behavior were higher in the negative group. The findings target sociocultural factors to consider in interventions for African American families.

Parental religiosity, family processes, and youth competence in rural, two-parent African American families.

A model that linked parental formal religiosity to children's academic competence and socioemotional adjustment during early adolescence was tested. The sample included 90 9- to 12-year-old African American youths and their married parents living in the rural South. The theoretical constructs in the model were measured through a multimethod, multi-informant design. Rural African American community members participated in the development of the self-report instruments and observational research methods. Greater parental religiosity led to more cohesive family relationships, lower levels of interparental conflict, and fewer externalizing and internalizing problems in the adolescents. Formal religiosity also indirectly influenced youth self-regulation through its positive relationship with family cohesion and negative relationship with interparental conflict.

Parental religiosity, family processes, and youth competence in rural, two-parent African American families.

Parental religiosity, family processes, and youth competence in rural, two-parent African American families.

Religion's Role in Organizing Family Relationships: Family Process in Rural, Two-Parent African American Families

One million African American families live in the rural South (Lick, 1986). These families are at risk for unemployment, low wages, low educational levels, substandard housing, and high infant mortality rates (Coward & Smith, 1993). The challenges confronting them are especially significant because of the lack of facilities, amenities, and services to which many urban African American families commonly have access (Lick, 1986). Identifying the factors that might protect these families against the effects of the risks they face is of great importance (Luthar & Zigler, 1990). One protective factor that is of special importance to African American families is religious activity. Investigators (e.g., McAdoo, 1983; Taylor, Thornton, & Chatters, 1987) have found religious participation to be an important component of African Americans' lives. The church contributes to cohesion in the African American community by acting as an agency of moral guidance, a conservator of political leadership, and the center of community life (Taylor & Chatters, 1991). The potential benefits of African Americans' religious participation are underscored by research indicating that religious belief and activity form an important coping mechanism for negotiating life's stresses (Krause & Tran, 1989; Taylor & Chatters, 1991). As Taylor & Chatters (1991) noted, the traditional otherworldly emphasis of many churches, particularly in the rural South, was black religion's remedy for the deleterious effects of pervasive discrimination and racism, and the resulting psychological alienation and demoralization (p. 106). The importance of religion in the lives of many African Americans persists today, making the church an important source of support in the African American community.There are several means through which religiosity may organize family relationships. First, religious participation provides spiritual assistance, delineates norms for moral and interpersonal behavior, and acts as a source of social support (Taylor et al., 1987). A variety of social psychological studies have described the positive correlation of formal religiosity with measures of coping and internal control during periods of adversity (Balk, 1983; Palmer & Noble, 1986). Of particular relevance to this study is the suggestion that people who are religious cope with stress in more adaptive ways; they are more optimistic and more focused in their coping efforts (Seligman, 1991). All of these benefits of religious participation are likely to influence family interactions positively. Second, the belief system upon which the Judeo-Christian religious tradition is based promotes a prosocial orientation toward relationships in general, and family relationships in particular. The values of loving one's family and neighbors, and forgiving one's enemies, are prominent (Thomas & Henry, 1988; Wuthnow, 1991). In several studies, religiosity has been found to be positively associated with marital adjustment (Bahr & Chadwick, 1985; Wilson & Filsinger, 1986) and marital stability (Shrum, 1980).None of these investigations, however, included rural African American families. In this article we examine the links between formal religiosity and several family relationship variables--marital quality, parental co-caregiver relationships, and parent-child relationships--in a group of rural two-parent African American families with a child in early adolescence. The model we propose was constructed based on the hypothesis that parental religiosity contributes to the organization of rural African American family relationships.RELIGIOSITY AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AMONG RURAL AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILIESIn Figure 1 we present an overview of the conceptual model that guided this research. (Figure 1 omitted) Maternal and paternal religiosity were assessed separately using a measure of formal religiosity, defined as the frequency with which each parent attends church and the importance to each parent of church attendance. …

Financial Resources, Parent Psychological Functioning, Parent Co-Caregiving, and Early Adolescent Competence in Rural Two-Parent African-American Families

We proposed a family process model that links family financial resources to academic competence and socioemotional adjustment during early adolescence. The sample included 90 9-12-year old African-American youths and their married parents who lived in the rural South. The theoretical constructs in the model were measured via a multimethod, multi-informant design. Rural African-American community members participated in the development of the self-report instruments and observational research methods. The results largely supported the hypotheses. Lack of family financial resources led to greater depression and less optimism in mothers and fathers, which in turn were linked with co-caregiving support and conflict. The associations among the co-caregiving processes and youth academic and socioemotional competence were mediated by the development of youth self-regulations. Disruptions in parental co-caregiving interfered with the development of self-regulation. This interference negatively influenced youths' academic competence and socioemotional adjustment.

Financial Resources, Parent Psychological Functioning, Parent Co-Caregiving, and Early Adolescent Competence in Rural Two-Parent African-American Families

Financial Resources, Parent Psychological Functioning, Parent Co-Caregiving, and Early Adolescent Competence in Rural Two-Parent African-American Families