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Article Excerpt
There have been many studies on single motherhood among African American women; however, few researchers have studied the growing population of college-educated, single mothers within this racial group. American women in general are exhibiting nontraditional behaviors regarding the family life cycle that may be based on various cultural attributes, diverse sexual life styles, personal experiences, varying belief systems, availability of birth control, and workforce participation. When examining African American women specifically, there seem to be more rapid changes occurring at the family life cycle stage of coupling and marriage when compared with the general U.S. population. Thus, a substantial number of African American women are bearing children without being married and while they are enrolled in college and/or employed. Although there is a significant group of African American single fathers, there is a higher percentage of African American single mothers. Despite an exhaustive discussion focused on this population, it has not included a comprehensive examination of the diverse lifestyles of these women.
Historically, many areas of academic research have been based on identifying and addressing social problems; however, a substantial amount of social research has been geared toward studying African American women who are (a) single mothers who live at or below the poverty line, (b) single mothers with little or no education, (c) single mothers who depend on welfare, and (d) single mothers who report being socially deviant (i.e., substance abusers and/or prison inmates). Overfocusing on a specific group within a race with specific variables can generate racial stereotypes. Moreover, societal images of African American single mothers have had negative connotations because of assumed traditional norms for family life. Many studies have skewed evaluations of single motherhood, and the specific circumstances of college-educated, African American mothers in challenging situations have been virtually absent in social research. This population remains unstudied, and the variety of variables related to them have not been accurately depicted.
* Background
Family life cycle theory was used to structure this study. This theory posits that there are several developmental stages in the life cycle of a family. The stage in the family life cycle most pertinent to this study is the coupling and marriage stage, and the situations among African Americans in this stage have not been fully explored. Although Carter and McGolderick (2005) provided an in-depth review of contemporary American families in the family life cycle as well as a profound review of single parenthood in the United States, their cross-racial review was reflective of what has been traditionally done in social research. That is, they devoted a whole chapter to African American families who live at or below the poverty line in the family life cycle, with no explicit reflection on other types of African Americans who represent different socioeconomic lifestyles. In fact, when these authors discussed American families in poverty, their examples were only of African Americans, as if there were no other races that could have been used for this category. Again, this reinforced the general stereotype of most African American families being impoverished. Furthermore, a significant number of studies were done in the 1990s that discussed single motherhood among African Americans; however, few current studies have been published. Most important, several major conditions have contributed to low marriage rates in the African American community, such as local male availability, educational attainment, and sex ratios. Unfortunately, when exploring research on marital trends within the African American community, it is evident that the literature is limited.
Marriage Rates
Among African Americans, the change in women's roles in the 20th century, coupled with changing attitudes about marriage, have led to a general decline in the marriage rate for this racial group (Pinderhughes, 2002). "This shift in the distribution of Black families by type is associated with a number of complex, interrelated social and economic developments, including sharp increases in separation and divorce rates, male joblessness, and fertility rates among unmarried women" (R. L. Taylor, 2002, p. 26). During the 1990s, the U.S. Bureau of the Census (Bennett, Martin, & Debarros, 1993) conducted studies on marriage rates and single motherhood in the African American community and in the general population. Some of the studies found that (a) the never-married population of African American men was larger than that for African American women; (b) among African Americans who were married, men outnumbered women; (c) there was a higher rate of single mothers among African American women when compared with Caucasian American women; and (d) there was a higher poverty rate for African American single mothers than for African American married mothers. Thus, the U.S. Bureau of the Census (2001) speculated that many African American women may experience a delay in marriage or perhaps may never marry. This could be due to diverse sexual lifestyles or no desire for marriage among a significant number of African Americans.
In essence, local "marriage markets" of mate availability affect marriage rates of individuals (Borgatta, & Montgomery, 2000; LeClere, Litcher, & McLaughlin, 1991). That is to say, if there is a low rate of men and women eligible for and open to marriage in a given community, then it would be harder for people to marry. In the African American community, this apparent low-rate of marriage market availability can be influenced by war participation (e.g., the Vietnam War, in which many African American men were killed who may have otherwise fathered children would have now been in the coupling and marriage stage of the family life cycle), incarceration, high male death rates, and/or diverse religious beliefs. It is evident that in the African American community, there are complex issues that affect marriage and traditional family lifestyles. Even from an educational perspective, increased educational attainment of African American women has widened a gap between African American men and women regarding intimately committed relationships (J. R. Taylor, Jackson, & Chatters, 1997).
Educational Attainment in the African American Community
Because role expectations are an intricate part of any intimate relationship, an imbalance in role expectations leads to a conflict that can strongly influence the family life cycle for any racial group (Rouse, 2002). Figures provided by the U.S. Bureau of the Census (2001) indicated that more African American women have obtained their bachelor's degree when compared with African American men. In fact, during 1998, there were 150,000 African American single mothers with bachelor's degrees or higher residing in the United States (Fields, 2003). Moreover, 8.7% of unmarried African American mothers with bachelor's degrees or higher reside in households with the opposite sex, and 5.3% of these women have children who are under the age of 18 years. Statistics for the European American population (non-Hispanic) indicate that 17.5% of unmarried women with bachelor's degrees or higher reside with the opposite sex and 5.7% of them have children under 18 years old (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001). African American women are obtaining their college degrees at higher rates than African American men (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001), and these women are not finding men who meet their criteria of role expectations for marriage (Cauci, McLoyd, & Takeuchi, 2000). J. R. Taylor et al. (1997) reported that African American women are not finding suitable African American male partners because of the imbalances in workforce participation and educational attainment. Many of these lifestyle differences derive from the historical social positioning of African Americans in the United States.
African American Sex Ratio
There is an imbalanced ratio of women to men within the African American community, which influences traditional family formation within...
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