Issues in African-American family preservation

Child Welfare. 1990 Nov-Dec;69(6):513-23.

Abstract

This article is concerned with African-American family preservation. The authors' assumptions are that (1) child welfare service takes place in a cultural context; (2) effective work with African-American families requires a culturally relative "nondeficit" perspective on African-American culture; (3) this begins with helping service providers to acquire an analytical approach to culture and factual knowledge about the cultural behavior of clients; and (4) staff members must be prepared through training to implement a cultural knowledge base in transactions with African-American families and must have the supervisory and policy supports to do this. The several practice issues central to African-American family preservation are highlighted.

MeSH terms

  • Black or African American*
  • Child
  • Child Rearing / ethnology
  • Child Welfare*
  • Communication
  • Community Participation
  • Cultural Characteristics*
  • Family / ethnology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Language
  • Male
  • Role