title: African American single mothers and children in context: a review of studies on risk and resilience.
abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive review of research linking single-parent family structure to parenting processes, maternal well-being, and child developmental outcomes among African Americans. The approaches used to study these families, related methodological and conceptual concerns, and the factors linked to maternal well-being, effective parenting processes, family functioning, and child outcomes are addressed. Much work remains to be done on conceptualizing and assessing parenting processes among African Americans in general and single African American mothers in particular. Researchers must examine more carefully the circumstances that foster or impede successful parenting among these mothers. Studies also are needed to disentangle the interactions between economic stress and parenting behavior and to determine the extent to which the findings can be applied to middle-income single African American parents.
authors.affiliation: Center for Family Research, Institute for Behavioral Research, University of Georgia, Athens 30602, USA. vmurry@arches.uga.edu
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Murry
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Bynum
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Brody
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Willert
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stephens
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003469:Culture; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting; D015406:Single Parent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012944:Social Support