Black fathers' personal histories, worldviews, and fathering behaviors

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Janean E. Dilworth‐Bart,Bakari Wallace,Oona‐Ife Olaiya
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12631

RESEARCH

Black fathers’personal histories, worldviews,

and fathering behaviors

Janean E. Dilworth-Bart

1

|Bakari Wallace

2

|Oona-Ife Olaiya

1

1

Department of Human Development and

Family Studies, University of Wisconsin–

Madison

2

Department of Civil Society and Community

Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Correspondence

Janean E. Dilworth-Bart, 1300 Linden Drive,

4132 Nancy Nichols Hall, Madison,

WI 53706, USA.

Email: jedilworth@wisc.edu

Funding information

This research was funded by a small grant from

The Spencer Foundation (#201600102).

Abstract

Objective: We examined links between boyhood and

fatherhood in a thematic analysis of Black men’s narra-

tives about their childhood histories, connection of these

experiences to their views about fathering, and descrip-

tions of their fathering relationships and behaviors.

Background: There remains a critical need to understand

how Black men father in a sociohistorical context that

defines them as absent or deficient.

Method: We conducted in-depth, semistructured qualita-

tive interviews with 30 Black fathers with children in

4-year-old kindergarten through grade 12 education. We

used life course theory and an integrative model of child

development as conceptual frameworks to guide a mixed

deductive–inductive analysis.

Results: We identified three categories and seven themes

within the categories: Personal History (Intergenerational

Relationships, Negotiating Race and Racism, Turning

Points), Fathering Worldview (Being a Father: The Nurturer,

The Educator; Fathering Black Children), and Fathering

Relationships and Behaviors (Father–Child Interaction,

Racial Armoring). We also identified fathers’explicit connec-

tions of their Personal Histories to their Fathering Worldviews

and, thereby, their Fathering Relationships and Behaviors.

Conclusion: This article addresses ways that Black men

make sense of their personal histories and connect these

histories to how they raise their children.

Implications: This discussion of intergenerational linking

of lives and turning points has significant implications for

understanding Black family development in the racialized

context of the United States and highlights the need for

comprehensive mental health support for Black men and

their families that focuses on racial trauma along with con-

ceptual and empirical focus on impacts of anti-Blackness

on individual and family well-being.

Received:7October2020 Revised:28June2021 Accepted:18September2021

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12631

© 2021 National Council on Family Relations.

1896 Family Relations. 2022;71:1896–1916.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

Black fathers, as a function of race and societal expectations, are often perceived to be uni-

nvolved or inadequately involved in their children’s lives. There are, in fact, many counterpoints

to this popular narrative (e.g., Allen, 2012; Edin et al., 2009; Posey-Maddox, 2017; Ransaw,

2014). Nevertheless, this critical bias in the research and practice with Black families that trans-

lates into further research, programs, policies, and daily interactions that devalue the roles of

Black men in Black family life. In this article, we contribute to the growing body of knowledge

about the complexity of Black men and their families by examining the potential links between

boyhood and fatherhood in a thematic analysis of Black men’s descriptions of their childhood

histories, their connection of these experiences to their views about fathering, and their descrip-

tions of their fathering relationships and behaviors.

NEITHER CHILDREN NOR MEN: THE UNIQUE SOCIAL POSITIONS

OF BLACK MEN AND BOYS

Black men and boys occupy uniquely devalued social positions in which they are perceived nei-

ther as children when they are young nor as adults when they are older (Butler-Barnes et al.,

2017; Dumas & Nelson, 2016). Black children are perceived as less innocent and more culpable

for their actions, and Black boys are perceived to be older than their same-age peers of other

races (Goff et al., 2014). These negative perceptions, in turn, pose an existential threat to Black

boys’safety that can be central to parents’childrearing (DiAquoi, 2017; Dow, 2016; Johnson

et al., 2020).

Black parents are tasked with the critical responsibility of helping their children develop

healthy identities and maintain both physical and psychological safety within a racially fraught

society. This racial socialization includes both proactive and reactive transmission of cultural

values along with the communication of strategies to cope with race-based oppression

(Anderson & Stevenson, 2019; Hughes et al., 2006; Stevenson & Renard, 1993). Racial sociali-

zation is associated with numerous positive outcomes among Black children including the

development of positive coping behaviors (Caughy et al., 2011; Neblett et al., 2012), lower

self-reported depressive symptoms (Neblett et al., 2013), and academic achievement (Wang

et al., 2020).

Although racial socialization is protective and promotive of Black youth development

(Neblett et al., 2012), not recognizing Black boys as children still effectively dehumanizes them

(Dumas & Nelson, 2016). This dehumanization extends into adulthood and may be related to

significant constraints on Black men’s lives (e.g., Assari, Lankarani, & Caldwell, 2018) and

structural barriers to parenting such as disproportionate incarceration, lack of access to ser-

vices, and criminalization of poverty (Henson, 2021; Threlfall & Kohl, 2015). It is similarly

notable that this dehumanization of Black personhood contributes to a body of scholarship that

is only beginning to address the needs of middle- and upper-income, LGBTQ+, or other diverse

Black fathers (Johnson & Young, 2016). Consequently, positive Black fathering is rendered

invisible (Hines & Boyd-Franklin, 2005) despite always having been a part of Black family sys-

tems (Allen, 2016; Mandara, 2006; Roy & Burton, 2007).

Theoretical framework

This analysis is grounded in life course theory (Elder et al., 2003) and Coll’s integrative model of

minority child development (Coll et al., 1996). Life course theory allows for understanding how

development is embedded in multileveled social and historical contexts (Elder et al., 2003). This

perspective also accounts for the interconnectedness of successive generations of family mem-

bers, particularly how one generation’s values, opportunities, and experiences impact expand or

BLACK FATHERS’HISTORIES, WORLDVIEWS, AND BEHAVIORS1897