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SITUATED IDENTITIES OF YOUNG, AFRICAN AMERICAN FATHERS IN LOW‐INCOME URBAN SETTINGS
Author(s) -
Gadsden Vivian L.,
Wortham Stanton E. F.,
Turner Herbert M.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
family court review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.171
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1744-1617
pISSN - 1531-2445
DOI - 10.1111/j.174-1617.2003.tb00899.x
Subject(s) - transformative learning , situated , perception , sociology , gender studies , identity (music) , vision , focus group , agency (philosophy) , psychology , social science , pedagogy , physics , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , acoustics , anthropology
Young, low‐income, African American fathers have been at the center of research, practice, and policy on families over the past decade. This article uses a “voicing” analytic technique to examine identities among young, low‐income, African American fathers living in an urban setting; the intersections of these identities; and the fathers' perceptions of the influences of familial, peer, and legal systems as barriers and resources in their development as fathers and the sustainability of their fathering roles. The primary questions addressed urban fathers' representations of their transition to fatherhood, intergenerational relationships, transformative events, and visions of a possible self. Results from a survey, focus groups, and interviews suggest that the fathers seek to reinvent themselves and reconstruct their identities by separating from street life, redefine home as a place of stability, and challenge the practices of social and legal systems that appear to work against their responsible fathering.