Unheard voices: African American fathers speak about their parenting practices.

Abstract

Researchers have called for qualitative investigations into African American fathers’ parenting practices that consider their social context and identify specific practices. Such investigations can inform the way we conceptualize African American fathers’ parenting practices, which can in turn contribute to prevention interventions with at-risk youth. We conducted semi-structured, qualitative interviews about parenting with 30 self-identified, African American, biological fathers of pre-adolescent sons at-risk for developing aggressive behaviors, depressive symptoms, or both. Fathers provided descriptions of their parenting practices, which were at times influenced by their environmental context, fathers’ residential status, and masculine ideologies. Our systematic analysis revealed four related themes that emerged from the data: managing emotions, encouragement, discipline, and monitoring. Of particular note, fathers in the current sample emphasized the importance of teaching their sons to manage difficult emotions, largely utilized language consistent with male ideologies (i.e., encouragement rather than love or nurturance), and engaged in high levels of monitoring and discipline in response to perceived environmental challenges and the developmental needs of their sons. The findings provide deeper insight into the parenting practices of African American fathers who are largely understudied, and often misunderstood. Further, these findings highlight considerations that may have important implications for father-focused prevention interventions that support African American fathers, youth, and families.

Paternal Caregivers’ Parenting Practices and Psychological Functioning among African American Youth Living in Urban Public Housing

“…Paternal caregivers were classified into four classes based on paternal parenting practices that ranged from high to low levels of encouragement and monitoring. These findings are consistent with descriptions of parenting practices in previous literature (Baumrind, , , ; Doyle et al., ; Letiecq & Koblinsky, ; Nebbitt et al., ; Rohner & Khaleque, ; Toth & Xu, ). Moreover, compared to fathers with moderate‐to‐low levels of encouragement and monitoring, caregivers with high levels of encouragement and monitoring were associated with youth who reported less depressive symptoms, higher levels of self‐efficacy, and less favorable attitudes toward deviance.…”

“…Although sparse, there is some additional evidence that African American fathers in particular engage in the following parenting practices: encouragement (Doyle et al., ; Nebbitt et al., ), psychological control (Bean et al., , ), discipline (Denby & Alford, ; Doyle et al., ; Staples & Johnson, ; Toth & Xu, ), and monitoring (Doyle et al., ; Letiecq & Koblinsky, ; Nebbitt et al., ; Toth & Xu, ). Moreover, some African American fathers may use a parenting style that involves acceptance and increased monitoring (Baumrind, ; Toth & Xu, ).…”

African‐American Fathers' Perspectives on Facilitators and Barriers to Father–Son Sexual Health Communication

“…All fathers in this sample accepted their role to educate their sons about sex. As did those studied by Burns and Caldwell (), fathers in our study also pointed to the significance of a positive father–son relationship as essential to be able to discuss sensitive topics such as sex (Doyle et al, ; Harris et al, ) and promote effective sexual health communication. These fathers reported limited experience in talking about sexual health with their own fathers because their fathers were absent or did not take on the role to educate them about sexual health.…”

“…Parent–adolescent closeness or connectedness is a facilitator of sexual health communication (Caldwell, Rafferty, Reischl, DeLoney, & Brooks, ; Doyle et al, ). Harris et al () found that parent–child closeness, defined as the bond a father has with his son, was positively correlated with amount of parent–child sexual communication with both mothers and fathers and with higher condom use self‐efficacy, less permissive sexual attitudes, fewer sexual partners, and fewer incidents of unprotected sex (Harris et al, ).…”

Influence of autism on fathering style among Black American fathers: a narrative inquiry

“…Doyle et al . () investigated the parenting styles of thirty Black fathers of pre‐adolescent sons at risk for aggressive behaviours and/or depressive symptoms. Results indicated fathers’ parenting practices were largely influenced by environmental context (i.e.…”