Black Single Fathers

Choosing to Parent Full-Time

Bibliographic Data

ID2365102
AuthorsRoberta L Coles (Marquette University, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume31
Issue4
Pages411-439
Publication date2002-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0891241602031004002
OpenAlexW2095957680
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited53

This ethnographic study uses the narratives of African American, single, full-time fathers to explore the motivations precipitating their choice to parent. While the fathers had in common a number of demographic characteristics, such as full employment, residence, and support systems, which factored into their timing of and ability to take full custody, none of these are salient in their own narratives expressing why they wanted to be full-time fathers. Instead, their main motives centered on fulfilling a sense of duty and responsibility, reworking the effects of having had weak or absent fathers themselves, wanting to provide a role model for their children, and fulfilling an already established parent-child bond

Developmental psychology · Duty · Ethnography · Narrative · Political science · Residence · Salient · Single mothers · Single parent · Sociology · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender Studies · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges