African American fathers and sons: Social, historical, and psychological considerations

Wade, Jay C

THE MAJORITY OF STUDIES on African American fathers focus on the pathological consequences of fathers' absence from the family or on the dysfunctional lower-class single-parent household and the "black matriarchy." Prior to the 1970s, fathers in general appeared only in research regarding boys' sex-role identity. Studies of delinquent boys in the 1950s and 1960s suggested that paternal absence, especially common in African American families, induced a type of hypermasculinity resulting in delinquent styles and behavior (Segal, 1990). Although studies in the 1970s contradicted these findings (e.g., Badaines, 1976; Davis, 1974; Hunt & Hunt, 1975; Longabaugh, 1973; Rubin, 1974; Wilkinson & O'Connor, 1977), it wasn't until the late 1970s and early 1980s that research on father-present, middle-class families focusing on the strengths of the African American family began to challenge the prevailing view of African American families as disorganized and unstable. Nevertheless, "absenteeism of males, combined with matrifocal homes, is suggested by the literature and accepted by society at large as the primary type of African American family household in the United States today" (Connor, 1988, p. 191).

In general, the research literature indicates that males in father-absent homes have problems with sex-role and gender identification, school performance, psychosocial development and adjustment, and controlling aggression (Lamb, 1986). However, in reviewing the literature on African American father-absent families, Connor (1988) concluded that although depictions of the effects of father absence in some families may be accurate, they are not representative of African American families in general. Such portrayals fail to take into account factors such as socioeconomic status, the supportive extended-family network, and institutional racism and the effects of discrimination. These studies tend to be biased toward traditional Western family norms and values and lack a comparison group of African American families in which mother and father are present or in which the single-parent family is economically sufficient. More important, these studies are easily accepted as representative of African American male psychology because they fit well with stereotypes and myths cultivated by a historically racist and sexist society.

The purpose of this article is to (1) present theory and research that question and refute the prevailing view of African American fathers and the impact of their role on the psychosocial development of male children and (2) explore the implications such theory and research have for counseling and psychotherapy with African American men and their families.

McAdoo (1993) advocated an ecological approach to the study of African American fathers in their various family roles. In this regard, the present article explores the role of fathers in European American culture from a sociohistorical perspective. How gender roles, power, and capitalism interconnect in a system of patriarchy is described in order to understand the larger social context influencing African American fathers. Following this, African American family patterns are discussed. From its historical roots in Africa to the present day, the role of the father in African American culture and how this role has been influenced by economic and social forces are explored. Theory and research pertaining to African American fathers as providers and in child rearing, with particular emphasis given to the father-son relationship, are also presented. A psychodynamic approach is used to discuss masculine identity development in order to understand the father-son relationship and the impact of father absence and father presence on the psychosocial development of male children. Finally, the ecological and psychodynamic perspectives are integrated to provide a conceptual framework for counseling and psychotherapy with African American men and their families.

SOCIOHISTORICAL CONTEXT OF WESTERN PATRIARCHY

A few historians have reconceptualized the past by showing how gender has functioned in social, economic, and political developments in Western Europe and America. Rapid capitalist industrialization during the 19th century, in particular, is viewed as a period during which sexuality (Carrigan, Connell, & Lee, 1987; Foucault, 1978; Weeks, 1981), gender roles, and gender relations (Kimmel, 1987; Pleck & Pleck, 1980; Stearns, 1979) were dramatically redefined.

According to French philosopher and social historian Michel Foucault (1978), prior to the 19th century, blood relationships were an important element in the mechanisms of power. In Western Europe, political power was consolidated in monarchies, class order and castes, and lines of descent. The marriage system fixed kinship ties and the transmission of names and possessions. Explicit codes of canon law, the Christian pastoral authority, and civil law supported and ensured the existence of this system as well as regulated sexual relations. However, in the early 1800s, with the development of heavy industry and the need for a stable and competent labor force, the mechanisms of power increasingly addressed the proliferation and regeneration of life. Medical authorities undertook the management of sexual behavior, compartmentalizing it in an attempt to restrict sexual relations to the "legitimate" heterosexual couple. The marriage system directed sexual relations toward the reproductive function. This shift in the mechanism of power corresponded to a need for a labor force that would reproduce itself (in line with capitalist motives).

The "institutionalization of heterosexuality" (Carrigan et al., 1987) supported a patriarchal system in which the nuclear family was the dominant cultural norm; men were viewed as procreators and providers and women as childbearers and child rearers. Filene (1987) noted that "during the course of nineteenth-century industrial development in America, the split between work and home--his sphere and hers--increasingly defined child-rearing as a mother's responsibility" (p. 110). Gender roles became more rigidly defined (Steams, 1979), and the "good provider" emerged as a specialized male role (Bernard, 1992).

Connell (1987) argued that the maintenance of (white) male authority and privilege, and the related notions of masculinity, can be attributed to an overarching, historically rooted system in which labor, power, and desire are the three main overlapping and interconnecting structures. The family, workplace, and state are the central institutions through which these structures operate. The dominant male and subordinated female roles are produced and supported by the division of labor in the family and work force. The maintenance of male power involves all of the institutions of authority, control, and coercion: the state and business hierarchies, sexual regulation and control, and domestic relationships. Connell (1987) further suggested that although the family institution seems less able now to provide a stable base for male authority, men's power in the family system is still upheld and partially reinforced by the state.

Both the ideological and coercive apparatuses of white male power are mediated by the system of patriarchy (Marable, 1983). The dominant ideology of a society is mirrored by the social relations of its members (Unger, 1989). There is no discontinuity between the family and society. The family serves its function if it falls in line with the overall strategy in society (i.e., patriarchal privilege). Conversely, no social strategy could achieve comprehensive effects if it were not propped and anchored by the family (Foucault, 1978). This continuity between the family and society is most obvious in the hierarchial structures of both. Whether it is the father of the family or the father of the country, priest as father or God as Father, culture and society invest authority in the symbolic figure of the father. Given the powerful symbiosis between family and society, any disruption in this union will have consequences. A nonpatriarchal family system and/or a redistribution of the power relationships within the family are likely to cause a rift in the social power structure--as was the case during the sexual revolution of the 1960s when the traditional family structure was challenged by the hippie, gay, and feminist movements. Conversely, changes in economic conditions and relationships of power in society can affect the structure of families in that society.

SOCIOHISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILY

According to Madhubuti (1990), both monogynous and polygynous societies have always existed in Africa. Whether the African family pattern consisted of having one or many wives, marriage played an important role in African customs and traditions. Traditionally, the African father was intimately involved in raising his children, especially the male children. Fathers passed on skills such as food gathering and hunting, knowledge of medicine, building of houses and public dwellings, and military science to their sons. Young men were taught to be providers and protectors of their families and were instructed in the art of healthy love making. The elderly men in the society played a key role in introducing young African males to manhood.

Gutman's (1976) research on black families during slavery and after emancipation indicated that two-parent households predominated. Unions tended to be long lasting, except when broken prematurely by the sale of one or both partners. When blood relationships were broken, the kinship ideal was asserted through fictive kinship arrangements until a new pattern of blood ties could be developed. On plantations where slaves were sold infrequently and families were permitted to remain intact, relationships tended to be monogamous. Marital fidelity was highly regarded but prenuptial sex was tolerated and no stigma was attached to illegitimacy. Fathers played a significant and authoritative role in the family (Blassingame, 1979; Genovese, 1976). However, according to Frazier (1948), it wasn't until emancipation that the African American family developed a patriarchal form of social organization similar to the Anglo-American family. Emancipation brought new economic arrangements; as African American males acquired a measure of power and property, male authority in the family increased, leading to the economic subordination of women.

Between the years 1880 and 1925, two-parent families were the norm in poor black communities; black female-headed families were scarcely, if at all, more common than they were among comparable white families (Gutman, 1976). However, during the Great Migration, some African American families were torn apart as a result of urbanization and industrialization. Many African American men were unable to find work, whereas African American women found domestic work (Connor, 1988). Similarly, during World War II, when African American males migrated to large industrial areas in search of employment, an uneven ratio between the sexes was created that led to the disruption of families and family life (Connor, 1988). It was not until the late 1960s, when the cumulative effects of poverty, racism, and segregation peaked, the country's economic progress began to deteriorate, the economy began to shift away from unskilled labor, and the social programs of the Great Society began to have an impact on the poor (Murray, 1984), that the two-parent family structure among African Americans began to deteriorate (Connor, 1988). In 1950, 9% of African American homes were headed by one parent. By 1970, the number had grown to 33.3%, and by 1980, to 45.8% (Glick, 1981).

Consequently, the African American single-parent family can be viewed as an adaptation to the forces of racial oppression and economics--a by-product of and response to modern capitalism. Wilson and Neckerman (cited in Connor, 1988) concluded that unemployment and underemployment of African American males and the resulting inability to provide for their families were directly related to the increase in African American female-headed homes. According to Eshleman (1985), black families have three distinct patterns. The matriarchal-matricentric family is usually headed by a single parent, although some include fathers who cannot support a family or who cannot exercise parental authority. Egalitarian two-parent families are primarily middle-class. Affluent families are usually patriarchal. In other words, the family's socioeconomic status affects its structure (Staples, 1988) and the role of the father.

THE FATHER AND PROVIDER ROLES

Madhubuti (1990) argued that fatherhood can increase a man's sense of failure and vulnerability if he knows or fears that he cannot provide for his wife and children. If African American men cannot negotiate a life for themselves and their family within the existing social structure, they may react negatively by withdrawing from the family or by abusing it, resort to a life of crime, develop outside relationships with other women, and/or resort to self-destructive acts of suicide and substance abuse.

Liebow's (1967) study of black "street" men indicated that some men did not associate with their families partly because they could not face the fact that they could not provide for their children. Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers (1976) and Voydanoff (1983) concluded that inability to provide for one's family is a great source of stress and contributes to a marginal position in the family. Unemployment has inhibited black men's attractiveness as a role model for their sons (Ray & McLoyd, 1986) and is related to fathers feeling less positively about their children (Sheldon & Fox, 1983). Although Ray and McLoyd (1986) pointed out that unemployment among lower-class African American fathers may result in fewer adverse effects because of the family's recognition of racial inequalities in society, Sullivan (1986) found that the African American community judges young fathers who do not attempt to provide care for their children.

Hendricks (1981) studied 20 African American adolescent fathers and found that these fathers were concerned primarily with financial responsibilities to their children, parenting skills, continuing their education, problems with the mother's parents, and their own future. Brown (1983) obtained similar results; the most frequent concern of 33 African American adolescent expectant fathers was financial responsibility for their family (this was not the most frequent concern for the expectant mothers). In a study of 50 African American teenage mothers, Massey (1991) found that 58% of the mothers reported receiving some marginal financial support from the father and 42% felt their baby's father was a good or an excellent provider.

Among African American families, as economic status rises, the father's active participation in his children's socialization increases (Cazenave, 1979; Davis & Havighurst, 1946; McAdoo, 1986). Cazenave (1984) found that when comparing African American men of lower and higher socioeconomic statuses, blue-collar men chose "provider" as the primary masculine role, whereas the provider role was the second choice among white-collar men. (Father was the first choice for married men and husband the first choice for unmarried men.) Thus, recent studies demonstrate that African American fathers are generally very concerned about being a "good" father and taking responsibility for and interest in the lives of their children and that an adequate and secure economic status facilitates the fathering role (McAdoo, 1986).

FATHER-PRESENT FAMILIES

Allen's (1981) study of family interpersonal dynamics and adolescent male outcomes in 100 middle-class families revealed interesting differences between African American and white fathers. African American wives rated husband involvement in child care and child rearing slightly higher than did white wives, and 63% of the African American mothers versus 47% of white mothers perceived their husband as providing more help than the "average" husband in rearing the son. White fathers were least likely to reward their sons; material rewards were given to sons significantly more often by African American fathers than by African American and white mothers and more often by white mothers than white fathers.

According to the adolescents in Allen's (1981) study, African American mothers and white fathers shared significantly more activities with sons than did white mothers and African American fathers, even though African American parents apparently spent approximately the same amount of time in shared activities with the son. Sixty percent of African American adolescents claimed above-average closeness with their parents, whereas only 47% of white adolescents did. Strikingly, African American sons were significantly more likely than were white sons to identify more closely with the mother than with the father (which supported the findings of Kandel [1971]).

Connor's (1986) research on parenting attitudes of 136 young African American men revealed that the participants perceived themselves as being actively involved with their children. In a follow-up study, Connor (1988) found that African American women (n = 138) also perceived African American men to be meaningfully involved with their children. Ninety-three percent of the fathers reported spending quality leisure time with their children. Hyde and Texidor (1988) found that African American fathers (n = 135) generally perceived the experience of fatherhood positively. The majority of fathers viewed child care as a responsibility to be shared by both the mother and father, including activities such as diapering, feeding, bathing, and dressing. These fathers were more likely than other fathers, who did not view child care as a shared responsibility, to have actually performed the tasks. Seventy-three percent believed that direct daily contact with their children was needed, and 90% indicated that they would like to spend more time with their children.

Although middle-class African American fathers tend to be more expressive and affectionate with their children than do their white counterparts, black and white fathers were more similar than dissimilar in their participation in and attitudes toward their role as fathers (Price-Bonham & Skeen, 1979). In general, middle-income African American fathers consider themselves effective, active participants in the care and upbringing of their children (Harrison, 1981) and exhibit the same range of attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs as do fathers from other ethnic groups in American culture (McAdoo, 1981).

FATHER-ABSENT FAMILIES

The highly valued role of father/provider has implications for absent fathers. A father who is unable to provide financial resources may feel, and therefore behave, as if he no longer has a role in the family. The frequency of contact with his children may be highly connected to his perception of usefulness as a provider. Isaacs and Leon (1987) interviewed 96 divorced mothers and found that the adaptive characteristics of the African American family historically, such as greater degree of self-sufficiency among women and strong ties with extended family, were related to visitation patterns. Additionally, establishing a regular visitation schedule, geographic distance separating the father from the children, discussing the children's needs after divorce, and the mother's living with her family of origin affected the frequency of visitations. Race and socioeconomic status were not related to visitation patterns.

Contrary to much of the literature, Earl and Lohmann (1978) found that many African American male children from father-absent homes saw their fathers frequently, and all of the boys in the study had access to an African American male who potentially could serve as a role model. When asked to whom the boys would go for advice that "only a man could help them with," 37% of the boys (n = 53) said they would go to their biological father. However, when the mothers were asked the same question about their sons, only 5% thought their son(s) would seek their father's help. Thus, the father-son relationship appeared to be more important to the boys than many of the mothers realized.

Increasingly, the African American family structure is reflected by a poor, single-parent, female-headed household. This type of family structure affects parental roles and child development but does not necessarily lead to pathological or dysfunctional consequences. Father presence and absence can be viewed on a continuum. Cause, onset, duration, and degree of father absence, as well as the availability of father substitutes (including the mother), can result in a wide range of outcomes for children. Attention from parents appears to have the most significant impact on children (Shinn, 1978); other family and peer relationships may be able to compensate for the father's absence (Rubin, 1974).

In a study of 280 preadolescents, Rubin (1974) found no significant differences in any self-attitude measure among boys and girls from homes with no adult males present and boys and girls from homes with adult male figures. In Shinn's (1978) review of the literature on father absence and children's cognitive development, the effects of father absence varied less with race, age, or sex than with the reason for the absence. Divorce was among the more damaging causes when compared with death, desertion, or separation. No conclusive evidence regarding the effects of longer absences as opposed to shorter ones was found. Socioeconomic status appeared to be the most important moderating variable. Adams and Horovitz (1980) found that poverty exerted a leveling influence that overrode the differentiating characteristics of ethnic and age grouping, family structure, and father presence or absence in psychopathology in boys from poor homes. No positive association between the boys' psychopathology and their fatherlessness was found.

MASCULINE IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT

Historically, the father has been viewed as having a relatively insignificant role in early child development. His perceived role was as support to the mother to enable her to respond appropriately to her infant's needs. Leowald (1951) recognized the father's role in freeing the infant from the early symbiotic relationship with the mother, and infant research has shown that infants become attached to both parents when both parents are involved (Lamb, 1980). Herzog coined the term "father hunger" to describe male infants' longing for their father (cited in Blos, 1985). Blos also referred to a preoedipal period during which the "dyadic father complex" appears. During this period, significant interactions occur between the child and the Father; boys actively and persistently solicit their father's approval, recognition, and confirmation, thus establishing a profound and lasting libidinal bond.

We have good cause to reason that these signals of approval and affirmation, transmitted by the father's presence (not necessarily verbalized), are received by the son during the early years of life and instill in him a modicum of self-possession and self-assertion--distilled, as it were, out of mutual sameness or shared maleness--which renders the wider world not only manageable and conquerable but infinitely alluring (Blos, 1985, p. 11).

Thus, the father is idealized during early childhood. Although male children pull away from the father through a process of "deidealization" during early adolescence, father-son closeness is reestablished in a more mature form during late adolescence or early adulthood.

The close bond between sons and mothers in African American families (Allen, 1981; Kandel, 1971) does not negate the importance and influence of the father-son relationship. Taylor (1976) suggested that for the male youth, the mother may continue to function as an object of moral and emotional support, whereas the father and/or male significant others serve as models by which the boy discovers and cultivates his social and personal identity. Similarly, a father can serve as a negative role model, influencing the son to identify with models dissimilar to the father (Taylor, 1976).

Hetherington (1966) suggested that adequate masculine identification occurs by age six and that this identification can be maintained in the absence of the father. However, if the father leaves during he child's first four years, before this identification has been established, long-lasting disruption in sex-typed behaviors may result. Blos (1985) argued that, in the case of father absence, a boy's internal image and identification with the father are highly influenced by the mother's positive or negative attitudes toward the father, which may or may not become part of the boy's self-identity. The boy may also idealize the absent father, in which case the internal representation of the father is unchanging and identification is with the idealized image of the father (Herdt, 1989; Taylor, 1976).

IMPLICATIONS FOR COUNSELING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY

Cushman (1992) asserted that some family therapy theories, such as systems theory, treat families as if they were removed from the larger social context and do not take into account the influence of larger sociohistorical forces on the family. In this regard, psychodynamic and ecological perspectives need to be integrated to provide a conceptual framework for understanding and working with African American men and their families. From an ecological perspective, the sociohistorical forces that affect African American men as providers and fathers must be understood in order to counsel these men sufficiently. From a psychodynamic perspective, understanding the influence of the father on the psychosocial development of male children is primary.

PROVIDER/FATHER ROLE CONFLICTS

Within the sociohistorical context of Western patriarchy, one can view African American fathers as being influenced by social norms that define masculine self-worth in terms of economic power and authority. Historically, however, social conditions have made it extremely difficult for African American men to achieve economic self-sufficiency and, therefore, to play an authoritative role within the family. As a result of their economic vulnerability, African American men may internalize beliefs that undermine their sense of self-worth. Their lack of authority in society is translated into lack of authority in the home or in some cases is overcompensated for by excessive and negative authoritative behavior in the home.

Practitioners should assess whether presenting problems of unemployed or underemployed African American men are related to their inability to fulfill societal and/or familial expectations as a provider. These men may suffer from a negative self-image and low self-esteem and may attribute their inability to secure gainful employment to some internalized deficiency of the self. A more realistic view would consider how a historically racist society and hostile environment have contributed to these men's predicament. Helping the client to determine the factors that he has control over and those he does not, as well as providing vocational assistance, may increase his sense of self-worth and value, regardless of his ability to provide for his family. For some men, employment-seeking skills can make a profound difference in their psychological well-being.

Fathers who are estranged from their children because of financial reasons and/or problems with their ex-wife may need to explore these issues in therapy. Divorced fathers who have little contact with their children manifest a higher incidence of psychiatric symptoms, particularly anxiety and depression (Feldman, 1990). Jacobs (1982) found that a divorced father's level of involvement with his children is a good predictor of his psychological adjustment after a divorce. Fathers may bury painful feelings associated with loss of their family and may need assistance in reestablishing a relationship with their children and in negotiating visitation rights with their ex-wife. Some men assume that their children have become attached to another male figure and thus give up hope for establishing a meaningful relationship with them. Although some fathers may not want to be involved with their children, practitioners should never assume that lack of contact or minimal contact means that the relationship is not important to the father and his children.

NURTURING FATHER AND MALE CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Many studies indicate that children benefit from an involved and nurturing father (Pruett, 1987; Radin, 1982; Sagi, 1982). Blos's (1985) theory of masculine identity development suggests that during the infant-toddler years (birth to age four) and adolescent periods the father-son relationship is particularly important for the child.

In Western societies, many fathers believe that the mother should play the primary parenting role during infancy and early childhood. Practitioners should assess whether either parent would like the father to be more involved in child care. Fathers' perception of lack of support from the mother, feelings of incompetence with regard to child care, and work-related pressures are barriers that may contribute to fathers' lack of involvement with young children.

Strong father-son bonds during the early stages of a child's development make it easier for the father to deal with conflicts that may occur in later stages of development. During the oedipal period (ages three to five) boys become competitive and may exclude the father. However, if the father has been a nurturing parent during infancy, boys are less likely to experience the father as a competitive rival (Feldman, 1990). Similarly, during adolescence, boys' struggles with issues of autonomy, sexuality, and masculine identity may be less conflictual for nurturing fathers.

The mother-father relationship and the mother's attitude toward the father are critically important to the psychosocial development of male children. Although a son's closeness and identification with his mother do not obviate his identification with the father or other male figures, mothers play an instrumental role in this process. Mothers should be encouraged not to draw their children into their conflicts with the father or to denigrate the son's memory of his father. Practitioners can help couples deal with their anger and to separate behaviors that are within the father's control from circumstances that are beyond his control. Some fathers may withdraw from their children in order to avoid conflict with their wife or ex-wife (Feldman, 1990). Practitioners can help these fathers separate their feelings about the child's mother from their feelings about the child.

ADULT SON-FATHER RELATIONSHIPS

Feldman (1990) suggested that fathers' feelings about their parental role should be a routine focus of assessment: "With all men, regardless of whether or not they are fathers, the crucial psychodynamic significance of their relationship with their own father should always be a major dimension of therapeutic exploration" (p. 104). According to Gordon's (1990) intergenerational model for working with men in therapy, therapy should help men obtain a fuller understanding of their own father and grandfather and thus help men come to terms with their own identity. Men with abusive or distant fathers should be helped to perceive their fathers as having human frailties as well as strengths.

Realizing that one's own father was struggling with these roles rather than being all-knowing and omnipotent can allow one to struggle also, and to see that father's way was only his way, not the only way to be a father (Gordon, 1990, p. 245).

The historical plight of African American men in the United States has had a profound effect on African American families. By helping African American men to connect with their heritage, gain a sense of continuity with their forefathers and those mens' struggles, and view their situation within a sociohistorical context, practitioners can help African American men develop a positive sense of identity and realistic self-appraisal.

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Jay C. Wade is a doctoral candidate, Counseling and Personnel Services Department, College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.

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