Family-based interventions may reduce the risk of acquiring HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among Black girls in the United States, but few have engaged Black male caregivers. We examined key implementation outcomes of IMAGE, IMARA for Black Male Caregivers, and Girls Empowerment, an adapted evidence-based intervention for Black girls (13-18 years old) and their male caregivers. We conducted a pilot test of IMAGE with 40 girl-male caregiver dyads, using a pre-post-test design at baseline and 1-month follow-up. We assessed four implementation outcomes: feasibility, acceptability, appropriateness, and fidelity. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the change from baseline to 1-month follow-up for girls and their male caregivers. Feasibility was strong; 87% of those approached agreed to participate, and 93% completed the intervention. Acceptability was also high, with more than 75% of girls and male caregivers reporting being extremely satisfied with IMAGE, and 76% of participants feeling there was an appropriate amount of time spent on the topics. Intervention fidelity, as rated by observers, was 98%. At 1-month follow-up, girls and male caregivers endorsed improvements in their relationship, namely closeness and communication. IMAGE is a promising program designed to protect and reduce transmission of HIV and STIs among Black girls. We found strong evidence of feasibility, acceptability, appropriateness, and fidelity; therefore, a fully powered randomized controlled trial is warranted.

Black men are less likely to participate in research studies due to historical abuses and mistrust, which has consequences for various health issues, including research to improve the sexual health and well-being of young girls and women. This paper aims to present strategies from research staff on how to engage Black male caregivers in family-based research. After our five Black research team members (i.e., researchers, recruiters, facilitators, and community liaisons) recruited 30 Black male caregivers into one-on-one interviews, ten into focus groups, six into theatre testing of an intervention, and 20 more into the pilot intervention, interviews explored their experiences engaging the targeted population in research. Interview questions included asking what strategies were successful, what challenges occurred, and future recommendations to engage Black male caregivers in research. Audio recordings and written response data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Themes included: 1) empowering Black communities through fatherhood initiatives, 2) utlizing culturally sensitive and respectful recruiters, 3) highlighting the value of Black men, and 4) implementing study materials enhancing positive representations of Black men. Implementing strategies to include Black men in family-based health research has the potential to reduce health disparities in the United States and increase their representation across the literature. These strategies will equip researchers to engage in research with minority and structurallysystemically disadvantaged groups.

Abstract Negative connotations associated with Black male adolescent mental health include the ascription of individual blame in the development of problem behaviors, pervasive use of the harshest approaches and treatment interventions, and the overrepresentation of Black male youth in detention and disciplinary contexts that often results from behavior and social miscues and developmental missteps. This chapter moves the context and location discourses on Black adolescent mental health beyond narratives of disparity and risk. The authors position school-based adolescent mental health services for Black male youth within developmental, gender-sensitive, and culturally appropriate contexts while also considering racial, socioeconomic, and geographic equity challenges.

Abstract Background Black girls are disproportionately impacted by HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), underscoring the urgent need for innovative strategies to enhance the adoption and maintenance of HIV/STI prevention efforts. Historically, Black male caregivers have been left out of girls’ programming, and little guidance exists to inform intervention development for Black girls and their male caregivers. Engaging Black male caregivers in Black girls’ sexual and reproductive health may reduce sexual risk-taking and improve the sustainability of preventative behaviors. Objective This paper describes the formative phases, processes, and methods used to adapt an evidence-based mother-daughter sexual and reproductive health intervention for Black girls 9–18 years old and their male caregivers. Methods We used the ADAPT-ITT model to tailor IMARA for Black girls and their male caregivers. Diverse qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups, and theater testing) were used throughout the adaption process. Results Findings support using the ADAPT-ITT model to tailor an evidence-based HIV/STI intervention for Black girls and their Black male caregivers. Findings highlight the importance of community engagement and the use of qualitative methods to demonstrate the acceptability and feasibility of the adapted intervention. Key lessons learned are reviewed. Conclusions Adapting evidence-based interventions to incorporate Black girls and their Black male caregivers should be driven by a relevant theoretical framework that aligns with the target population(s). Adapting the intervention in partnership with the community has been shown to improve acceptability and feasibility as it is responsive to community needs. Using a systematic process like the ADAPT-ITT model will ensure that the new program is ready for efficacy trials.

Father involvement, as specifically parent-led or engaged activities, is recognized and understood as distinctively broad in scope, but also rigid and historically prescribed by gendered social roles such the provider and protector roles. American fatherhood is rooted in masculine tropes that historically restricted men to narrowly circumscribed social roles and expected parental performance. All too frequently hegemonic masculinity stifles broad paternal engagement and ingenuity as well as children’s and families well-being. In addition, racial and ethnic bias and discrimination limits Black and other men of color’s ability and access to enact paternal expectations and obligations broadly shared by American civil society and the fathers themselves (Johnson & Johnson, under review). Interventions with these fathers and their families frame the empirical studies in this Special Issue of Research on Social Work Practice.

Conceptualized using critical race theory as a theoretical underpinning, this study analyzed the lived experiences of older, rural, African American male prostate cancer (hereafter referenced as PrCA) survivors' faith and health promotion practices within Northeast Louisiana. Qualitative data from journaling, observations, and semi-structured interviews were obtained from ten older, African American male PrCA survivors residing in four rural parishes of Louisiana. The data analysis employed a two-stage approach known as Polkinghorne's analysis of narratives and narrative analysis using an art-based methodological approach. Framed as composite character counterstories, survivors' narratives revealed how survivors made sense of and gave meaning to their PrCA diagnosis, treatment, recovery, and survivorship. Specifically, their counterstories indicate that centering and honoring the unique and often taken-for-granted perspectives of older, rural, African American male PrCA survivors offered a deeper understanding of the multiple factors influencing their quality of life, as well as the sociostructural mechanisms impacting their survivorship care. Faith was examined as both a secular and sacred source of support that these men viewed as central to the acceptance of their diagnosis, treatment, recovery, and survivorship.

The role of fathers in the lives of young men has been explored extensively in the literature (Perry, 2017; Alleyne-Green, Grinnell-Davis, Clark, & Cryer-Coupet, 2015; Coley & Medeiros, 2007). However, Black fathers, and particularly those of boys who live in adverse circumstances, are often perceived as being uninvolved or without direct influence on the day-to-day functioning of their sons. As Black boys attempt to navigate stressful encounters associated with community violence and encounters with law enforcement, adequate social capital should be considered as it relates to the acquisition of skills needed to remain safe and maintain wellbeing. Additionally, spatial disadvantage, which often contributes to the reproduction of the human capital failures and losses, confines these youth within largely contiguous impoverished neighborhoods and positions BYOC as more vulnerable to possible seduction and/or victimization via interpersonal, gang, and community violence; it also increases the likelihood that they will be victims of racial profiling by law enforcement. Black fathers and father figures are routinely viewed as perpetrators of the violence that their sons may experience within their neighborhoods (Perry & Johnson, 2017). However, fathers that are present are not recognized as assets or resources to aid their sons in being safe and maintaining wellbeing (Richardson, 2010). Qualitative pilot findings emerging from 27 father-son dyads in the Fathers and Sons Communication Study suggest that Black fathers and father figures serve as assets or sources of family-based social capital in helping their sons to avoid violence and remain safe (Johnson, Rich, & Keene, 2016; Richardson, 2010). They do so by: having difficult conversations related to the pervasive threat of violence at the hands of fellow neighborhood and community residents; reassuring their sons that they are loved and as fathers (or father figures) they are available to help them successfully triumph over such threats to their safety; and by offering key strategies to navigate the nuanced distinctions in responding to tense and potentially violent interactions with gangs and community violence perpetrators, police and other law enforcement figures. Since Black fathers who have themselves grown up under adverse circumstances have likely experienced gang and community violence, police harassment and detention, and/or racially motivated violence, they may function as an asset and protective factor for boys' safety and wellbeing in ways in which sons identify as a trustworthy source of information on which to rely. Fathers and father figures of Black boys who face high-risk circumstances provide unique insight into the experience of being a male living and surviving in the same or similar context. Findings from the current study offer a new perspective on how Black fathers' involvement contributes to the social development of Black boys, particularly behavioral adjustments and coping strategies in the face of biased and/or adversarial encounters with peers, community residents and law enforcement personnel.

Over 50% of the 1.5 million people in federal and state correctional facilities have children under age 18. Many of these incarcerated parents are fathers of color. Infrequent physical contact and engagement of fathers triggered by incarceration may present a great degree of disadvantage among their children. Therefore this study examined the literacy trajectory of African American boys whose fathers experience incarceration and to what extent does co-parenting between fathers and mothers intervene or moderate the effects of incarceration. The study analyzed five waves of the Fragile Families study, which provided measures of paternal incarceration and vocabulary of focal children in the study. The findings provided that paternal incarceration consistently had a negative effect on focal sons' educational outcomes across four waves of data. There was general agreement across fathers' and mothers' reports assessing the co-parenting relationship, in which fathers tended to assess the co-parenting relationships slightly stronger than did mothers. The study findings suggest that mothers and fathers co-parenting relationship did not have a sizable or significant direct influence on sons' educational outcomes across waves. However, the co-parenting construct did decrease the effect of incarceration on sons' outcomes. The study informs intervention policy and practice, which should promote enhanced co-parenting strategies that will minimize parental conflict and build parenting consensus and agreement during early and primary education engagement.

Family has always been one of the strongest institutions in the African American community. However, over the past 30 years, massive changes have occurred within the structure of African American families, resulting in many fathers living apart from their children. Applying the basic tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Michelle Alexander's notion of Racialized "Game Changing," this article examines the social, political, and economic factors that have worked to undermine normative Black fatherhood involvement and family formation patterns over time. Two of the major arguments—the slavery argument and the cultural argument—offered in the empirical research literature in an attempt to explain the shifts that have occurred within Black families historically are also examined, followed by an in-depth discussion and analysis of factors that underlie the changes in Black family structure and formation over time. The article concludes with a set of policy recommendations for strengthening Black fatherhood and family formation in the 21st century.

Compared with their White counterparts, preadolescent and adolescent males of color are disproportionately exposed to violence from multiple sources, including law enforcement, neighborhood community violence, and racially motivated attacks. Existing preventive and intervention strategies have primarily focused on the policing and/or reformation of individual youth. Alternatively, this article draws on both social-ecological and risk and resilience frameworks to argue for the mobilization of fathers, social fathers, and their sons of color, in a communication intervention strategy that enhances father–son communication about successful navigation of diverse neighborhood contexts post-Ferguson. Such an intervention may improve individuals’ outcomes and neighborhood collective efficacy by strengthening fathers’ and sons’ engagement in their roles in families, neighborhoods, and communities.

Compared with their White counterparts, preadolescent and adolescent males of color are disproportionately exposed to violence from multiple sources, including law enforcement, neighborhood community violence, and racially motivated attacks. Existing preventive and intervention strategies have primarily focused on the policing and/or reformation of individual youth. Alternatively, this article draws on both social-ecological and risk and resilience frameworks to argue for the mobilization of fathers, social fathers, and their sons of color, in a communication intervention strategy that enhances father–son communication about successful navigation of diverse neighborhood contexts post-Ferguson. Such an intervention may improve individuals’ outcomes and neighborhood collective efficacy by strengthening fathers’ and sons’ engagement in their roles in families, neighborhoods, and communities.

This report describes findings from the first round of in-depth interviews conducted as part of the Parents and Children Together (PACT) evaluation. Interviews were held with 87 low-income, mostly noncustodial fathers who voluntarily enrolled in one of the four Responsible Fatherhood (RF) programs being studied in PACT. The report draws extensively on quotes from fathers to paint a detailed portrait of their lives, including their own childhoods, views on fathering, relationships with their children and the mothers of their children, personal challenges, employment and child support experiences, and their participation in the fatherhood programs.

An impressive array of literature acknowledges the role of family members, friends, neighbors, and community institutions as rich resources of social capital which poor African American parents utilize in the collective socialization of their children. How parents access, mobilize, and deploy family and community-based social capital in resource-deprived communities for the social benefit of their children has been well documented. Yet, little is known about the challenges poor parents face raising troubled youth, particularly African American boys, when they are unable to generate social capital within their social network of family members, friends, neighbors, and community institutions to assist with raising their children. How do low-income African American parents raise troubled youth in disadvantaged communities when there are few resources of social support to draw upon? What strategies do parents use when they have exhausted and depleted their social capital? Drawing on three years of ethnographic field observations and multiple in-depth interviews with parents of pre-delinquent African American boys, this article examines how African American parents living in an impoverished African American community in New York City rely on the juvenile justice system, particularly juvenile confinement, as a parenting strategy. The findings suggest the need for alternatives to juvenile confinement and additional social support resources that can assist parents with parenting troubled youth.

African American males have never fared as poorly as they do currently on a number of social indicators. They are less likely to complete high school than their white male and female or African American female peers, they are more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms, and they have fewer sanctioned coping strategies. Arguably, no other group in American society has been more maligned, regularly faced with tremendous odds that uniquely threaten their existence. When they do receive education, mental health, and physical health services, it is often in correctional settings. They are marginalized in public policies on secondary and higher education attainment, marriage and parental expectations, public welfare, health, housing, and community development. Yet they remain overlooked in health and social science research and are stereotyped in the popular media. Taking a step back from the traditionally myopic view of African American males as criminals and hustlers, this groundbreaking book provides a more nuanced and realistic portrait of their experiences in the world. Chapter authors, both established and emerging scholars of social problems relevant to African Americans, offer a comprehensive overview of the social and economic data on black males to date and the significant issues that affect them from adolescence to adulthood. Via in-depth qualitiative interviews as well as comprehensive surveys and data sets, their physical, mental, and spiritual health and emerging family roles are considered within both individual and communal contexts. Chapters cover health issues such as HIV and depression; fatherhood and family roles; suicide; violence; academic achievement; and incarceration. With original research and a special eye toward enhancing social work and social welfare intervention practice with this often overlooked subpopulation of American society, this volume will be of great interest to researchers interested in African American issues, students, practitioners, and policy makers.

Objective. To describe the roles community members can and should play in, and an asset-based strategy used by Chicago's South Side Health and Vitality Studies for, building sustainable, large-scale community health research infrastructure. The Studies are a family of research efforts aiming to produce actionable knowledge to inform health policy, programming, and investments for the region.Methods. Community and university collaborators, using a consensus-based approach, developed shared theoretical perspectives, guiding principles, and a model for collaboration in 2008, which were used to inform an asset-based operational strategy. Ongoing community engagement and relationship-building support the infrastructure and research activities of the studies.Results. Key steps in the asset-based strategy include: 1) continuous community engagement and relationship building. 2) identifying community priorities, 3) identifying community assets, 4) leveraging assets, 5) conducting research, 6) sharing knowledge and 7) informing action. Examples of community member roles, and how these are informed by the Studies' guiding principles, are provided.Conclusions. Community and university collaborators, with shared vision and principles, can effectively work together to plan innovative, large-scale community-based research that serves community needs and priorities. Sustainable, effective models are needed to realize NIH's mandate for meaningful translation of biomedical discovery into improved population health. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

African American males have never fared as poorly as they do currently on a number of social indicators. They are less likely to complete high school than their white male and female or African American female peers, are more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms, and they have fewer sanctioned coping-strategies. Arguably, no other group in American society has been more maligned, regularly faced with tremendous odds that uniquely threaten their existence. When they do receive education, mental health, and physical health services, it is often in correctional settings. They are marginalized in ... More