The best kept secret
Subtitle: single black fathers
By: Roberta L. Coles.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield; Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Lanham, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 169
ISBN-13: 9780742564251; 9780742566125
Subjects: African American single fathers; African American single fathers -- Psychology; Child rearing -- United States; Parenting -- United States; African American families -- Social conditions
Description: "The best kept secret studies the often-overlooked group of single, African American custodial fathers. While the media focuses on the increase of single mothers and the decline in marriage in the black community, Roberta L. Coles paints a nuanced picture of single black dads. Based on qualitative research, the author examines the parenting experience of these fathers, who became single parents through nonmarital births, divorce, widowhood, or adoption. The fathers, ranging in age from twenty to seventy-six, discuss their motivations for taking custody of their children, the roles they enact as parents, the hopes for their children, how they socialize their children in a diverse society, how parenting daughters differs from sons, and what parenting has done for them personally. Coles then recommends policy changes to improve the situations for children and single parents-particularly often-unseen fathers. Filled with dynamic interviews and intriguing case studies. The Best Kept Secret shows that single black custodial fathers do exist and looks at the ways raising children has shaped their lives."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introducing a new concept : black single custodial fathers; title: Choosing to parent on their own; title: Being all things to all their children : parenting roles and behavioral goals; title: Fathering daughters and sons : the role of child's gender; title: Negotiating racial identity and socialization; title: Is fathering good for fathers?; title: Single custodial fathers and institutional policies.