Are Urban Black Families Nuclear? A Comparative Study of Black and White South African Family Norms

Decomposing changes in household measures: Household size and services in South Africa, 1994–2012

“…Indeed Russell (2003aRussell ( , 2003b has criticised approaches that emphasise current location for not properly understanding the complexity of the social connections between people or how people move between households and locations. Posel, Fairburn, and Lund (2006) point out the importance of such rural-urban linkages in the context of analysing employment and migration behaviours.…”

Distance Parenting – Implications for Social Work Practice

“…The rural-urban divide, coupled with high levels of poverty and unemployment, are some of the structural factors that force families to become economic migrants, thus having the effect of normalising distance parenting, for the most part in black communities. Absorption into the labour force enforces the prevalent pattern of leaving children with substitute caregivers, preventing the child bearer from being the child carer (Russell, 2008).…”

Relationships between Adolescents and Adults: the Significance of Narrative and Context

“…For example, divorce, single parenting and habitual parental absence have been linked, irrespective of the cultural backgrounds within which they occur, with conduct disorder and poor social functioning (Weitoft, Hjern, Halund & Mans, 2003). As Russell (2002) argues, however, rules governing how relationships are identified and conceptualised, who should live with whom, and so on, emerge in any stable society. Family and household systems therefore need to be interpreted in terms of the rules and norms of the relevant group, rather than in terms of those of any other group.…”

“…While the above authors, amongst others, have explored the outcomes associated with relationships between young people and adults (Anderson, Case & Lam, 2001;Anderson and Lam, 2003;Maharaj, Kaufman and Richter, 2000), and the social networks and systems within which they occur (Russell, 1995(Russell, & 2002Spiegel and Mehlwana, 1997), relatively few studies have investigated the mechanisms whereby they lead to the outcomes of interest, or the qualities of relationships engendered by the relevant social systems. Amongst those that have, the overwhelming majority focus on parent-child relationships, for example whether or not they are characterised by 'storm and stress', on parenting styles, for example permissive as opposed to warm but authoritative parenting (Steinberg, 2001;Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, Fraleigh, 1987), and on levels of parental investment (Anderson, 2003;Anderson, Kaplan, Lam & Lancaster,1999), basing their interpretations on typically Western values and ideals, and identifying relationships and their characteristics that deviate from this unmarked norm as less likely to lead to positive outcomes.…”

“…These decisions cannot be interpreted simply as a surrender to the pressures imposed by discriminatory legislation, and hence as evidence of the disintegration of traditional and more desirable arrangements. Instead, they are often taken to protect children from the disruptive influences of migration to the cities, such as violence in schools, and enabled through the flexibility of child-care options inherent in the kinship system (Russell, 2002). In fact, according to Russell, a model in terms of which the mother is necessarily the care-giver is inappropriate for most of sub-Saharan Africa, where other kin have rights and responsibilities for children to an extent that she describes as "almost unimaginable" to people from other cultural systems.…”