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African American father-daughter relationships: The impact on the daughters' perception of and interaction with men.
Abstract
This study examined the quality of experiences African American women (N = 119) have with their fathers and the effects of the quality of this relationship on the daughters' perception of and interaction with African American men in their personal (i.e., husbands, significant others, friends, brothers, cousins, uncles) and public lives (i.e., men at work, men who are not friends but, one frequently encounters). The daughters represent a sample of highly educated women, ages 30 to 87, who attended the University of Michigan. Family background and family dynamics were assessed separately for the quality of father-daughter relationship and the type of men the daughters found attractive. Both descriptive and quantitative analyses were conducted. Overall, the daughters reported experiencing high quality relationships with their fathers. Mothers education was the only family background variable which influenced the reported quality of the father-daughter relationship. The perception of fathers' attitudes toward African American women was the only family dynamic variable which influenced the father-daughter relationship quality. Family background and family dynamics did not influence the type of men daughters found attractive. In general, the women held positive attitudes toward African American men. The quality of father-daughter relationship significantly influenced the type of men the daughters' found attractive. Several least squares regression were used, controlling for age, to estimate different parts of the framework. The results of the study suggest that African American father-daughter relationships are both significant and long term. African American fathers are actively involved in the lives of their daughters. African American father-daughter relationships should be examined in the context of the family. African American women who have high quality relationships with their fathers tend to have longer lasting romantic relationships with men than their counterparts. The limitations of the sample size and its homogeneity were noted. Implications for practice and future research also were discussed.
... It also influences how equipped urban, African American adolescent females feel to resist drugs (Boyd, Ashcraft, & Belgrave, 2006). Additionally, evidence from quantitative and qualitative studies of African-American females indicates that aspects of the daughter-father relationship can have implications for daughters' romantic and sexual relationships (Cochran, 1992;Harris Peterson, 2006;Hill 2005), with positive paternal involvement being linked to lower risky sexual behavior (Harris Peterson, 2006). ...
... According to Hill (2005), when lack of paternal involvement is coupled with educational and economic marginalization, many poor African-American young women seek support and validation from a male partner. Cochran (1992) also finds that the nature of the daughter-father relationship influences women's attitudes toward males as well as the quality of their male-female relationships. These studies of outcomes related to daughter-father relationships reveal the influence of fathers for positive outcomes. ...
Based on 79 qualitative, in-depth interviews of 40 African-American college-educated women between the ages of 18 and 22, this dissertation compares how women from two-parent households and single-mother-headed households construct narratives of their experiences with their fathers. The dissertation accomplishes three objectives: 1) to highlight the means by which Black women actively work to deconstruct and navigate dominant images of fatherhood and Black fatherhood; 2) to discuss the contribution of Black fathers to the daughters??? sense of womanhood (as theorized by respondents); and 3) to link the findings with federal policy initiatives regarding fatherhood.
I find that the women neither fully embraced nor rejected traditional paternal roles, such as the breadwinners and head of household. Instead, they made sense of dominant discourse by incorporating their actual experiences with their fathers into their ideal narratives regarding fatherhood, particularly Black fatherhood. I also find that social fathers are significant to the women???s conceptualizations of fatherhood, as many provide alternative images of male contributions to family life.
The women in my study employ fathers in their narratives of Black femininity. They argue that their fathers contributed to their abilities as African Americans and women to navigate public spaces and intimate relationships. I also find that the women in my study express great agency as they contemplated their daughter-father relationships. Women with disconnected relationships with their fathers use their perspectives on forgiveness and reconciliation to afford themselves power and control within their daughter-father relationships.
Overall, the women???s reflections on mainstream and alternative forms of fathering and daughter-father relationships have important implications for social policies related to Responsible Fatherhood. I argue that Responsible Fatherhood policies should be child-focused and reflect the realities of daughter-father relationships.
... Chapman (1997) asserts that many negative forces such as racism have impacted the African American community and perpetuated stereotypes that men and women internalize. Cochran (1992), from her review of the literature, concludes that of the multiplicity of factors that shape how African American men and women view one another, one of the most destructive is the internalization of the negative attitudes and stereotypes held by the larger society. The stereotypes of the "no-good African American man" who engages in relationships with multiple partners for amusement and the "hostile African American woman" who seeks to avoid or dominate men have been particularly damaging within African American communities (Lawson & Thompson, 1999;Chapman, 1997). ...
African American family life has traditionally been viewed from a deficit perspective (Billingsley, 1992) in which it was assumed that the absence of a residential father figure was equivalent with several detrimental outcomes for children (Gadsden, 1995) and social ills within the African American community (Moynihan, 1965, Franklin, 1950). Explorations of family process that go beyond linking family structure with child outcome have only recently emerged within the literature and these explorations remain rare. Furthermore, qualitative inquiry into the long-term impact of family of origin and contextual influence on adult women's beliefs about men and relationships is rare. This study focuses on the manner in which familial interactions impact African American women's perceptions of men and their experience of relationships. Through open-ended interviews with five African American women, this study demonstrated the impact of non-residential father figures, other early male influences, and the observation of romantic relationships within one's family of origin on black women's perceptions and behavior in relationships. Some environmental influence was also evident.
Black women and girls face conflicting expectations to be both strong and respectable. Studies of their socialization into racialized gender ideals often focus on the influence of society, mothers, and media. In this article, I investigate how black women’s relationships with their fathers shape their responses to racialized gender ideologies. Based on 79 in-depth interviews with 40 college-educated black women between the ages of 18 and 22, the data show that the quality of daughter–father relationships influences how black women navigate discourses of strength and respectability. This study extends research about the transmission of racialized gender ideals by identifying key differences between women with supportive fathers and those with distant, uninvolved fathers. The article concludes with an appeal for further examination of daughter–father relationships and their influence on black women’s meaning making and negotiation of femininity ideals.
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