[h2]Where are the fathers?[/h2]Study hopes to fill gap in information on absent African-American fathers
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By Catherine Behan
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More than 70 percent of African-American children are born out of wedlock, with the majority raised by single mothers.
Where are the fathers?
Waldo Johnson, Jr., Assistant Professor in the School of Social Service Administration, intends to find out.
A scholar on the status of African-American fathers, Johnson is one of 10 investigators in the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, a national longtitudinal study -- the first of its kind -- on unmarried parents and their children. His segment of the study focuses on unmarried, low-income, African-American non-resident fathers.
"The study is designed to understand the circumstances of young, unmarried parents," Johnson said. "We have developed extensive public policy about these parents without any real information about them."
While researchers have gathered some information about single mothers, complementary information about single fathers, especially low-income, African-American, single non-resident fathers, is virtually unknown. In addition, how these unmarried couples interact in negotiating parenthood is also unknown.
The general perception, Johnson said, is that these fathers are not only absent, but they don't offer support -- financial or otherwise -- and don't care about their children. But a preliminary study of 20 unwed African-American mothers and 14 fathers residing in Chicago shows that the relationship between low-income, African-American fathers and their children is much more complex than that.
The relationship can be dramatically affected by a multitude of issues, Johnson said, such as the father's ability to provide financial support, the relationship between the mother and father, and the relationship between the unwed parents' families. According to preliminary findings, the mothers of unmarried parents may be particularly influential in whether a young unmarried couple continues their relationship and the degree to which a father is involved with his children.
The current study will determine what factors promote as well as inhibit fathers' relationships with their children, and address ways that public policy can potentially strengthen those relationships.
"We hope to identify the areas where there is some relationship between the fathers' involvement and their children's well-being, and recommend policies that can increase that interaction, including the provision of financial and emotional support to children of unwed fathers," Johnson said.
A major tenet of the most recent U.S. welfare reform law focuses on unwed fathers: make them take responsibility and make them pay child support.
"The belief is that all non-resident fathers are deadbeat dads who could provide for their children but choose not to," Johnson said. "There are some of those men, and those fathers should be held accountable for their children. But there are more low-income, poorly educated fathers with weak connections to the work force who want to be a part of their children's lives, but don't know how. The researchers on this study want to know what kinds of things are hindering these fathers from making a commitment to their children." Policies aimed at these fathers require a different set of interventions.
Many of the fathers in the Chicago pilot study were either out of work or sporadically employed. Among those employed fathers, many worked "off the books," or in marginally paying, non-permanent jobs that paid workers cash -- without any unemployment or health benefits.
"That could help explain why they aren't married or residing with their children," Johnson said. "If they think they can't be a provider for their children and their wives, they may choose to stay away from the family." They are also 'pushed out' because of their inability to support their families.
Johnson said the study will provide the empirical evidence that is needed to make sound policy decisions affecting children of unwed parents, and perhaps provoke change to encourage greater involvement among the unmarried non-resident fathers. He pointed out that current welfare reform provisions offer job and skill training to mothers, for example, but not fathers -- and yet nearly all of the fathers in the study were minimally employed or under-employed.
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[h1]First comes baby, then comes marriage?[/h1] [h2]In the black community, the motivation from peers or families to get married is gone.[/h2]
By Maryann Reid
NEW YORK - I thought I was on track to defy the gloomy family statistics that challenge today's African-American community: 70 percent of black children are born out of wedlock in the United States. Engaged, and with wedding plans under way, I was confident my future children would be born into a stable home. But then the wedding was called off.
In the days and months that followed I started to think long and hard about why it is all too common for black men and women to skip the trip to the altar. Even the couples who seem to have it together - a safe place for each other and their children to live and love - don't always take that final step. What was stopping them? I decided to explore the issue by writing a novel.
Through my interviews with hundreds of cohabiting but unmarried black couples with children across the economic spectrum, I learned about something we rarely discuss anymore: The motivation from peers or families to get married is gone, and so is the stigma about having a child out of wedlock. In fact, children without married parents have become so common in black communities that the term "baby daddy," an unwed father usually stereotyped as a ghetto caricature, has gone mainstream.
Last year my book, "Marry Your Baby Daddy," a story about three sisters who had to marry their significant others within six months to receive their grandmother's inheritance, was published. It was a satisfying experience but I didn't want it to end there - in the land of fairytales. I wanted to see tangible results - an actual wedding. And so I set about searching for 10 couples who would tie the knot for the first time in exchange for an all-expense paid ceremony.
The attitude that marriage is not necessary to nurture and raise our children is actually a new one in the black community. Historically, blacks have valued the institution of marriage and the traditional two- parent household. In 1890, 80 percent of African-American families were headed by two parents, even though many had started life in forced family separation under slavery. Even in the 1960s, when black Americans were in the height of civil rights strife, 23 percent of black babies were born out of wedlock, a modest figure compared with 70 percent today. And today's single moms aren't just welfare teens, either. Most out-of-wedlock black babies are being born to women in their 20s and 30s across the economic spectrum.
While the stigma against children born out of wedlock has diminished, the impact on community bonds has not. A recent study for the journal Criminology has revealed that "neighborhoods with larger portions of adults who are less 'invested' in marriage and residential stability are more likely to see higher rates of assault by African-American males." Children raised in fatherless homes are more likely to be delinquent, do poorly in school, have lower self-esteem, become chemical abusers, and reproduce the same family pattern in their own lives. In most cases, no matter how strong or diligent a mother may be, children have a subconscious knowledge of what is right and wrong in a family set up. Boys turn to their fathers for their sense of masculinity and manhood. If their dad isn't around, the streets and group aggression are the next best thing for most.
This doesn't mean that African-American men are less interested in marriage. I've come to believe they just don't have the encouragement to get married. In fact, 65 percent of the calls I received when the word got out that I was trying to find couples willing to participate in a free wedding came from men.
Local vendors were also more than willing to help make "Marry Your Baby Daddy Day" a success. I raised $90,000 of goods and services from local businesses, which donated dresses, cakes, rings, limousines, and more. I spent $138 of my own money. I earned nothing in return but the satisfaction of seeing 20 beautiful brown faces say, "We do," on Sept. 29, 2005.
It is my intention that these 10 couples will help to start a trend back toward single mothers encouraging marriage - for themselves as well as their daughters. And that single fathers will once again see marriage as a way to increase their value to their community. That's why I've founded Marry Your Baby Daddy Inc. as a nonprofit organization to promote and encourage marriage and family values in our community. The phones haven't stopped ringing from people wanting to participate or help in some way.
Already I've heard from the couples I interviewed for "Marry Your Baby Daddy Day" how this small incentive has helped improve their relationships. Many of them come from generations of unmarried couples or long-term "engagements." Some women shared that their men had become more responsive since signing on to be married, taking more initiative in the household, and seeming more interested in the future, now that marriage was a real possibility.
And the men have begun to see that marriage is not only a father's way of committing to the mother, but to the child as well, in a legally binding commitment that protects all - including his own rights.
The columnist above is a Black women, also.
Other findings in the Census Bureau report include the following:
- The proportion of White women under age 30 who had a premaritally born or premaritally conceived first birth tripled, from 15 percent in the early 1930s to 45 percent in the early 1990s.
- The comparable figure for African American women doubled, from 43 percent to 86 percent.
- The proportion of first births to women 15-19 years old that were premaritally born or premaritally conceived increased from 28 percent in the early 1930s to 89 percent in the early 1990s.
- In 1990-1994, about 85 percent of all first births to White women ages 15 to 19 were either premaritally born or premaritally conceived, compared with 25 percent for the 1930-1934 period.
- The comparable figures for African American teenage women were 98 percent and 47 percent, respectively.
Peace out ABH.
