Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Strategies for Change

1. THE WOES OF THE INNER-CITY AFRICAN AMERICAN FATHER

9 Chapter 1 THE WOES OF THE INNER-CITY AFRICAN AMERICAN FATHER WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON Today, one quarter of all families and six of every ten black families are lone-parent families, and most of these lone parents are never-married mothers. One half of all marriages end in divorce and only one half of divorced fathers make the payments that they owe by law to support their children. If current trends continue, one half of the children in the United States will experience at least part of their childhoods in lone-parent families (Luker 1998). The decline of the married-parent family is a controversial topic, one that has been featured in political debates about “family values.” According to one observer, Ever since the growth of the one-parent family, there has been a tendency to accept it as virtually normal. Too many social commentators portray the birth of children out of wedlock as part of the “norm.” What actually amounts to abandoning children, usually by the father, is becoming increasingly acceptable without penalty to anyone except to the neglected child. Too many social scientists and policymakers play down the advantages of the two-parent family; some even ridicule it as an outmoded middle-class ideal. (Hechinger 1992) One reason for concern about the sharp decline in the marriage rate is that children living in one-parent families in the United States, especially those in families where the parent has never married , suffer from many more disadvantages than those in marriedparent families. “Families with multiple earners rise toward the top of the family income distribution, while families with just one earner fall toward the bottom,” states the University of Texas economist James K. Galbraith (1998, 12). “As the number of single-headed households rises, so too will inequality. This pattern is compounded 10 BLACK FATHERS IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SOCIETY in the real world by the grim fact that single-headed households also comprise, to a large extent, those with the most unstable employment experiences at the lowest wages.” Children living in households headed by single mothers are the poorest demographic group in the nation. Whereas only one tenth of children in husband-wife families are living below the poverty line, over one third of those living with divorced mothers and two thirds living with mothers who had never married are classified as poor. Finally, mothers who had never been married are more likely to receive welfare or public assistance for a significantly longer period than do separated or divorced mothers. In addition to the strong links between single parenthood and poverty and welfare receipt, the available research indicates that children from mother-only households are more likely to be school dropouts, to receive lower earnings in young adulthood, and to be recipients of welfare. Moreover, daughters who have grown up in black single-parent households are more likely to establish singleparent households themselves than are those who have been raised in married-couple households. Furthermore, single-parent households tend to exert less control over the behavior of adolescents. Reviewing their research findings, Sanford Dornbusch and his colleagues (1985, 340) concluded: We do not know whether it is lack of surveillance, lack of appropriate teaching, or lack of social support for the single parent that leads to a reduction in control of adolescents, especially males, in mother-only families. But we do know, and perhaps this has broad implications, that the presence of any other adult in a mother-only household brings control levels closer to those found in two-parent families . . . and that the raising of adolescents is not a task that can be borne by a mother alone. Many factors are involved in the precipitous decline in marriage rates and the sharp rise in lone-parent families since the 1970s. The explanation most often heard in the public debate associates the increase in the number of out-of-wedlock births and single-parent families with welfare. Indeed, it is widely assumed among the general public that a direct causal connection exists between the level of welfare benefits and the likelihood that a young woman will bear a child outside marriage, and this assumption is reflected in the many recent proposals for welfare reform. However, the scientific evidence offers little support for the claim that AFDC benefits played a significant role in promoting out-ofwedlock births. Research examining the association...