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Physical Activity In Two Low-Income Detroit Neighborhoods: Disentangling Human Agency From Social Structure, Daniel J. Rose

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article explores strategies developed by African American residents in response to barriers to physical activity in two low-income Detroit neighborhoods. Using 47 in-depth, qualitative interviews, a grounded theory approach allowed the analysis to be reframed around the ways in which structural factors conditioned, but did not determine the human agency of residents seeking physical activity. Interviews revealed numerous responses to structural barriers such as devising home routines, cognitive mapping to avoid perceived threats, and leaving the neighborhood to access resources. Differences in neighborhood contexts, along with unique individual concerns, showed that agency was neither a constant nor independent force, …

Hurting Leaders: The Lived Experiences Of African-American Clergy And Their Views, Attitudes, And Barriers To Help-Seeking, Bernice Suzette Patterson

Dissertations

The help-seeking tendencies of African-Americans, as a whole, have long been a source of confusion to the field of counseling. Moreover, in the available literature on help-seeking, in the African-American community there is an apparent deficit of information on the help-seeking habits of its clergy members. Current literature focuses primarily on African-American clergy and their roles in facilitating the development of professional counseling relationships for their parishioners rather than on their ability to seek out professional counseling relationships for themselves.

The focus of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of African-American clergy related to …

Family Structure Effects On Parenting Stress And Practices In The African American Family, Daphne S. Cain, Terri Combs-Orme

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The predominant approach to African-American parenting research focuses on disadvantages associated with single parenthood to the exclusion of other issues. The current research suggests that this does not represent the diversity in family structure configurations among African-American families, nor does it give voice to the parenting resilience of single mothers. We argue that rather than marital status or family configuration, more attention needs to be given to the inadequacy of resources for this population.

In the current study, we examined the parenting of infants by African- American mothers and found that mothers' marital status and family configuration did not affect …