NCJ Number
145668
Date Published
1993
Length
207 pages
Annotation
The papers in this volume examine recent social and economic trends among African-Americans, critique the traditional treatment of the black family in research, and offer a holistic perspective on the study of black families.
Abstract
Key economic trends that are affecting the status of African-Americans include income, employment, and occupational patterns; an increasing income gap between blacks and whites; and higher black poverty rates coinciding with lower rates of black welfare dependency. The authors identify several key social trends: increases in single-parent families and illegitimate births; increasing demands for child care services; increases in informal adoptions; and the worsening housing shortage among poor people. The authors contend that conventional policy makers have employed a deficit model when studying black families, in which they have tended to blame the victim and attribute the problems of black families to internal pathologies. The holistic perspective outlined in this book examines the separate and combined effects of external subsystems in the wider society, external subsystems in the black community, and internal subsystems in families on the individual, family, and community. Chapter references, 1 appendix