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AFRICAN American Family Dynamics as Perceived by Family Members

The need to study culture-specific family patterns is becoming well recognized among family therapists (Fullilove, Carter, & Eversley, 1986; Kazak, McCannell, Adkins, Himmelberg, & Grace, 1989; McGoldrick, Pearce, & Giordano, 1982; Spaights, 1990). Although cognizant of the risk that any attempt to identify general patterns may be misused in the form of stereotypes, therapists also recognize that a prerequisite to understanding a particular family is consideration of the context in which the family operates. Culture is one aspect of that context. There is likewise a need to identify common patterns among African American families (Boyd-Franklin, 1989a; Brinson, 1992; Jones, 1983; Littlejohn-Blake & Darling, 1993; Spaights, 1990). Without minimizing the individual differences and variations among African American families, recognition of predominant patterns provides therapists with a frame of reference, a set of hypotheses, from which to understand a particular family. Criticisms of the greater part of current research on African American families include the lack of empirical data (Boles & Curtis-Boles, 1986) and the tendency to compare African American families with European American families, implying that the latter provide the norms for measurement. This comparison is further compromised by the lack of controls for socioeconomic levels (Fine, Schwebel, & Myers, 1987; Julian, McKenry, & McKelvey, 1994; Lyles & Carter, 1982; Wilson, 1984).