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Families of color disproportionately are represented in the child welfare system and experience systemic racism that is pervasive and harmful. Anti-racist, anti-oppressive approaches are needed to equitably work with families from a strengths-based lens. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the development and initial implementation of the Authentic Family Engagement and Strengthening (AFES) approach. Upon initial examination descriptive and inferential data show lower percentages of children being removed by the specialized investigators compared to other investigators in the same zip codes. Implications of the approach are discussed and plans for future research are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stories of familial memories, histories and daily life, from sixteen daughters of diasporic Indian families living in Britain, are used to examine how culture, gender and consumption are negotiated within family settings. The differing gate-keeping roles played by parents, children and grandparents within families, in resisting or promoting the negotiation of cultural boundaries, have not been examined before. This provides a crucial opportunity to examine the changing pattern(s) of power, identity and gender roles in ethnic families; the gap in research on gender roles within the family; the family as part of a social system; the cultural embeddedness of family relationships; and the family at a more disaggregated level. These daughters' stories identified the polarisation of parental positions over a number of key issues, notably language, media and consumption (e.g. food, alcohol, clothing); showed the importance of understanding gender as performance across the family/societal boundaries; and demonstrated the centrality of communities and networks in supporting and restraining different interpretations of culture, consumption and gender by mothers and fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the focus of this issue of the journal on the impact of the family on marketing and a consideration of the impact of marketing on families. A description of the review process for papers selected for the issue is provided along with a summary of the topics of the papers. Some of the topics explored include the initial journey toward family and the transition into motherhood. The issue of food is also discussed as it becomes an area of contestation and negotiation. Other papers explore beyond the nuclear family as white, middle class and heterosexual, to examine ethnic, poor, homosexual families, and families with disabled children.

The article discusses the role of social workers in providing peer support to families in culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) communities with children who have disabilities or special health care needs. Topics include the development P2P peer support programs for parents of children with disabilities, issues related to cultural inclusivity, and suspicion of social services by refugees and undocumented immigrants.

A fundamental principal in the Norwegian welfare system is to provide equal access to healthcare services for all residents, regardless of their ethnicity, language, knowledge, function, or belief. However, many service recipients experience a gap between these ideals and everyday realities. In this article I investigate how this gap affects minority families of disabled children who do not master the majority language and healthcare workers. The data I use in my investigation draw on a qualitative study of minority families of disabled children and healthcare workers. The findings that emerge out of these data are categorized into: linguistic difficulties, expectations and assumptions, and culture-bound services. I use these findings to illuminate how language difficulties and stereotypical assumptions within the Norwegian healthcare system make it difficult for minority families to access healthcare services, and how healthcare services lack an effective way to meet minority families’ needs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objectives: To: 1) review the historical contexts and current profiles of father involvement in African American families; 2) identify barriers to, and supports of, involvement; 3) evaluate the effectiveness of father involvement programs; and 4) recommend directions for future research, programs, and public policies. Methods: Review of observational and interventional studies on father involvement. Results: Several historical developments (slavery, declining employment for Black men and increasing workforce participation for Black women, and welfare policies that favored single mothers) led to father absence from African American families. Today, more than two thirds of Black infants are born to unmarried mothers. Even if unmarried fathers are actively involved initially, their involvement over time declines. We identified multiple barriers to, and supports of, father involvement at multiple levels. These levels include intrapersonal (eg, human capital, attitudes and beliefs about parenting), interpersonal (eg, the father's relationships with the mother and maternal grandmother), neighborhoods and communities (eg, high unemployment and incarceration rates), cultural or societal (eg, popular cultural perceptions of Black fathers as expendable and irresponsible, racial stratification and institutionalized racism), policy (eg, Earned Income Tax Credit, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, child support enforcement), and life-course factors (eg, father involvement by the father's father). We found strong evidence of success for several intervention programs (eg, Reducing the Risk, Teen Outreach Program, and Children's Aid Society - Carrera Program) designed to prevent formation of father-absent families, but less is known about the effectiveness of programs to encourage greater father involvement because of a lack of rigorous research design and evaluation for most programs. Conclusion: A multi-level, life-course approach is needed to strengthen the capacity of African American men to promote greater involvement in pregnancy and parenting as they become fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preterm birth is the leading cause of infant death for African Americans and is significantly associated with lifelong morbidity. Primary prevention efforts using medical strategies to reduce the rates of preterm birth have been unsuccessful. Using community partnered participatory processes, the Healthy African American Families project in Los Angeles developed a multilevel, risk communications strategy to promote awareness about preterm birth in the local community. Participants included community members, community-based organizations, local government, healthcare providers, and national-level advocates. The initiative focused on increasing social support for pregnant women, providing current information on preterm birth risks, and improving quality of health services. The initiative includes components addressing community education, mass media, provider education, and community advocacy. Products include "100 Intentional Acts of Kindness toward a Pregnant Woman©, a doorknob brochure on signs and symptoms of preterm labor, and an education manual on preterm birth and other African American health issues. Cooperation, affiliation, and community self-help were key aspects of the planning process and the health promotion products. Additional community benefits included increased leadership and skills development. The process and products described here may be useful in other communities and for addressing other health outcomes in communities of color [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past two decades, there has been an increased use of community-based participatory research in public health activities, especially as part of efforts to understand health disparities affecting communities of color. This article describes the history and lessons learned of a long-standing community participatory project, Healthy African American Families (HAAF), in Los Angeles, California. HAAF evolved from a partnership formed by a community advisory board, university, and federal health agency to an independent, incorporated community organization that facilitates and brokers research and health promotion activities within its community. HAAF created mechanisms for community education and networks of community relationships and reciprocity through which mutual support, research, and interventions are integrated. These sustained, institutionalized relationships unite resources and both community and scientific expertise in a community-partnered participatory research model to address multiple health problems in the community, including preterm birth, HIV, asthma, depression, and diabetes. The HAAF participatory process builds on existing community resiliency and resources and on centuries of self-help, problem-solving, cooperative action, and community activism within the African American community. HAAF demonstrates how community-partnered participatory research can be a mechanism for directing power, collective action, system change, and social justice in the process of addressing health disparities at the community level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One key step in the evidence-based practice process directs practitioners to pose client-oriented, practical, evidence-search questions (COPES), seeking the truth about what will help their client (Gibbs, 2003) and inform policy (Gambrill, 2006) and not to take a “one method fits all” position. Literature focusing on providing services to minority children and families in the child welfare system strongly supports this approach (Cohen, 2000; Lum, 2004; Samantrai, 2004). This article poses an effectiveness question, locates and evaluates existing evidence, and then presents implications for working with families and children from diverse backgrounds. The effectiveness question posed is, “If families and children from diverse populations experiencing mental health problems receive Multisystemic Therapy, will they have similar outcomes across race and ethnicity?” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic disadvantage is associated with multiple risks to early socioemotional development. This article reviews research regarding family stress frameworks to model the pathways from economic disadvantage to negative child outcomes via family processes. Future research in this area should expand definitions of family and household to incorporate diversity and instability. This expansion would be particularly relevant for research among low-income ethnic minority families and families with young children. This line of research would highlight specific pathways to target to prevent the onset of early parental and child dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By way of autoethnographic poetry, I reflect on my daughter's struggle to negotiate the tenuous space created by the effects of post-Brown desegregated schooling in a predominantly White district, high family expectations, and her own identity as an African American teenage female. The story of this recent family crisis is viewed through multiple lenses as an African American female, single parent, educator, and artist. It is situated within the domain of educational critical race theory and its intersections with gender and class. Critical race theories in education have provided avenues for marginal voices to be heard. Further research and writing should be aimed toward amplifying these muted voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to assess how acculturation may influence the beliefs that Latinos hold about adult children's obligations to assist older parents and stepparents. Beliefs about inter-generational assistance were obtained from 195 Latinas and 167 Latinos from a randomly selected national sample using six vignettes that described situations in which an older adult needed help. Findings suggest that Latinos are bicultural-they maintain rather than replace their cultural values and beliefs while adopting some aspects of mainstream culture. Specifically, they hold beliefs about strong family obligations regardless of relationship quality between individuals, while incorporating more individualistic beliefs, such as the notion that adult children should not strain their resources, when helping older parents and step- parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mother—daughter case study focuses on a key feature of discourse within a Mexican immigrant family that links oral traditions to resilience and motivation. I combine observations from a previous ethnographic study with recent follow-up interviews of a Mexican immigrant student building on a funds of knowledge framework and an ecological perspective. Expanding on current mother—daughter pedagogic theory, I map ‘dichos’ as they are emblematic of cultural funds of knowledge and how they assume a relationship to resistance and academic attainment for a young Mexican immigrant. The findings challenge the notion that working-class Latino families do not care about the educational fortunes of their youth and lack knowledge and resources to guide their children academically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on African American families is reviewed to address the past use of a deficit model on research and intervention, family structure, and a typology of family functioning. Considerations for family counselors working with African American families are addressed. Implications for practice and further research are explored to address the issue of working with African American families from a deficit perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research seeking to explain variation in extended family coresidence focused heavily on the potentially competing roles of cultural preferences and socioeconomic and demographic structural constraints. We focus on challenges associated with international immigration as an additional factor driving variation across groups. Using 2000 census data from Mexico and the United States, we compare the prevalence and age patterns of various types of extended family and non-kin living arrangements among Mexican-origin immigrants and nonimmigrants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Additionally, we use the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine the stability of extended family living arrangements among Mexican-origin immigrants and natives in the United States. We find that newly arrived immigrants to the United States display unique patterns in the composition and stability of their households relative to nonimmigrants in both Mexico and the United States. Recent immigrants are more likely to reside in an extended family or non-kin household, and among those living with relatives, recent immigrants are more likely to live with extended family from a similar generation (such as siblings and cousins). Further, these households experience high levels of turnover. The results suggest that the high levels of coresidence observed among recently arrived Mexican immigrants represent a departure from "traditional" household/family structures in Mexico and are related to the challenges associated with international migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Afrocentric theoretical approach is utilized as a framework in guiding practitioners working with African American families. Afrocentricity places African American history, culture, and African heritage at the center of persons of African American families. An Afrocentric perspective also epitomizes the political, economic, and social freedom of African American families and communities. More importantly, understanding the cultural dynamics of African American families and their historical and contemporary use of resources (e.g., worldview, language, spirituality, etc.) to adapt and overcome certain life circumstances can be useful in assessment and treatment. doi:10.1300/J137v15n02_08 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although the importance of religion in family relations is well documented, the role of grandparents in family religious lilt has received less attention (Ellison & Moulton, 2003). Among African American families, many studies articulate the importance of family elders in the transmission of religious values (Rosenthal, 1985; Taylor, Jackson, & Chatters, 1997; Weddle-West, 2000). However, few studies delineate the ways African American grandparents transmit their religious values to younger family members. A description of the religious role of grandparents in African American households can inform our understanding of the religious values transmission process among ethnic families. This qualitative study describes the religious dimensions of the grandparent role in a sample of 17 co-resident intergenerational African American families. Findings show that African American grandparents provide religious instruction and guidance, model religious behavior, engage in intercessory prayer, and promote the religious significance of family relationships, The findings suggest that religion is an important variable in grandparent role satisfaction and that a family-level analysis of religiosity among African American elders provides a fuller understanding of religion and aging than individual-level descriptors of religiousness alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated acculturation and the perceived parent-child acculturative gap as predictors of the quality of parent-child relationships among 172 Asian American college students and their parents. It was expected that both acculturation level and perceived parent-child acculturative gap would play significant roles. The results showed that only perceived parent-child acculturative gap was significant across all assessed dimensions of the mother-child relationship (depth, support, conflict, and satisfaction), whereas both acculturation level and perceived parent-child acculturative gap were significant in only two dimensions of the father-child relationship (conflict and satisfaction). Overall, perceived parent-child acculturative gap was a stronger predictor than was acculturation level. Findings from this study provide implications for future research and intervention approaches with Asian American families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined parent-adolescent autonomous-relatedness functioning in inner-city, ethnic minority families of adolescents exhibiting drug abuse and related problem behaviors. Seventy-four parent-adolescent dyads completed a structured interaction task prior to the start of treatment that was coded using an established autonomous-relatedness measure. Adolescent drug use, externalizing, and internalizing behaviors were assessed. Parents and adolescents completed assessment instruments measuring parenting style and family conflict. Confirmatory factor analysis found significant differences in the underlying dimensions of parent and adolescent autonomous-relatedness in this sample versus previous samples. It was also found that autonomous-relatedness was associated with worse adolescent symptomatology and family impairment. Results based on both sell-report and observational measures contribute to the understanding of key family constructs in this population and provide insight for both researchers and the treatment community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-five introductory marriage and family textbooks were reviewed for content about black families. Texts ranged in coverage from less than one page (5 texts) to entire chapters (2 texts). Perspectives of the authors were determined with 9 texts written from a black families as culturally deviant perspective, 13 from a cultural equivalent model, 3 from mixed perspectives, and none using the black family as variant approach. Recommendations to instructors selecting texts are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores racial and ethnic differences in kin support and focuses on financial support that adult children receive from their parents. The authors decompose group differences in the instances of adult children receiving financial assistance into those explained by behavioral patterns and resources. The article examines conclusions from previous studies, racial and ethnic interhousehold resource transfers, and models of intergenerational transfers. Also examined is the practice of receiving financial assistance from parents. Advice for future research is also given.

Members of a convenience sample of first-generation Latino brothers and sisters, all attending college, were interviewed about their childhood and contemporary experiences with money. The interviews focused on the ways in which the parents, all born in Mexico, approached money and how the subjects were influenced. In contrast to other research findings, Latinos and Latinas were raised with similar beliefs and practices about money; there were no separate money-gender tracks for these men and women. This equality seems to result from the high frequency of poverty in the sample. Although subjects had realistic attitudes about money, they also reported difficulties with managing money upon entering college. A strong belief in the value of education, acquired from parents, provided subjects with a sense of future that included financial success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Andrew Billingsley in Black Families in White America has criticized much of the previous research on the black family, saying that social scientists have ignored the structural variation among families and have focused on a very limited number of family functions. To correct what he believes to be a distorted picture of the black family, he has suggested a typology of family structures and a large number of family functions which should be taken into consideration. This paper, based upon data collected from 321 black households, uses Billingsley's typology to examine the association between family structures and functions. It is concluded that a few modifications of the typology would expand its utility, that more detailed information about family structure does reduce the chances of distortion and contribute to greater understanding, and that Billingsley may have overemphasized the capacity of many black families to deal with their functional problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was stimulated by the controversy that has developed over the Moynihan Report and the question of the extent to which the Negro family represents an institutionalization of culturally "deviant" norms. In order to probe this question further, an attempt was made to determine some of the concomitants of discrepancies between the subjectively perceived actual and ideal family role behavior of a sample of Negro males. The results indicate that such discrepancies in family role performance are related to relatively low evaluations of one's own achievements and probability of success in goal striving, as well as relatively higher discrepancies between achievement and aspiration. These findings point to the fact that discrepancies in family role performance of the Negro male are part of a more encompassing perception of failure in the larger arena of goal-striving behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on how to create healthy African American families through the Healthy African American Families (HAAF) project in Los Angeles, California. It states that strategies involving health care cannot reduce the increased health risks among African American families. It mentions that HAAF also emphasizes the importance of fathers as valued members of families and communities.