African American Single Mothers: Understanding Their Lives and FamiliesBette Dickerson The African American single-parent family has tended to be a scapegoat for a variety of social problems, ranging from poverty to drug abuse. As a result, there exists much misinformation about this family form. In this collection, the African American matriarchal family is re-evaluated to present a more informed picture of its actual structure and functioning. From an Afrocentric feminist perspective, contributors examine the history, legal dilemmas, media images and religious values of these families. The roles of children, grandparents, fathers, other support figures and the government are reviewed. This insider view of these households concludes with suggestions of more effective and sensitive policy approaches to this t |
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adolescent mothers African American families African American female African American single African American women African culture African descent Afrocentric American male American single mothers Asante behavior Billingsley Black family Black women caregiver centered centrism Chicago child context cultural deviant culture of poverty dominant economic empowerment enslaved Africans ethnic Eurocentric European American extended family family form family structure father female-headed families female-headed households female-led families Frazier gender grandmothers groups Gutman Herskovits legal system lives marriage mass media maternal matriarchy matrifocal McLoyd morals Moynihan Murphy Brown myths Negro networks normative nuclear family perspective pregnancy problems race racial realities relationship role scholar-activists scholars sexual single parents single-mother families single-parent slave slavery social society status Sudarkasa teenaged motherhood teenaged mothers tion traditional two-parent U.S. Bureau U.S. Government Printing United University Press unwed motherhood welfare White woman York Yoruba