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Race and Ethnicity Commons

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Family, Life Course, and Society

Selected Works

2015

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Race and Ethnicity

Best Kept Secret: Single Black Fathers, Roberta Coles Mar 2015

Best Kept Secret: Single Black Fathers, Roberta Coles

Roberta Coles

The Best Kept Secret studies the often-overlooked group of single, African American custodial fathers. While the media focuses on the increase of single mothers and the decline in marriage in the black community, Roberta Coles paints a nuanced picture of single black dads. Based on qualitative research, the author looks at the parenting experience of these fathers, who may have become single parents through nonmarital births, divorce, widowhood and adoption. The fathers, ranging in age from 20 to 76, discuss their motivations for taking custody of their children, what roles they enact as parents, what they hope for their children, …


Myth Of The Missing Black Father, Roberta Coles, Charles Green Mar 2015

Myth Of The Missing Black Father, Roberta Coles, Charles Green

Roberta Coles

Common stereotypes portray black fathers as being largely absent from their families. Yet while black fathers are less likely than white and Hispanic fathers to marry their child's mother, many continue to parent through cohabitation and visitation, providing caretaking, financial, and other in-kind support. This volume captures the meaning and practice of black fatherhood in its many manifestations, exploring two-parent families, cohabitation, single custodial fathering, stepfathering, noncustodial visitation, and parenting by extended family members and friends. Contributors examine ways that black men perceive and decipher their parenting responsibilities, paying careful attention to psychosocial, economic, and political factors that affect the …