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CDC Report: The "Absent Black Father" is a complete myth

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TacticalFox88

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently published new data on the role that American fathers play in parenting their children. Most of the CDC’s previous research on family life — which the agency explores as an important contributor to public health and child development — has focused exclusively on mothers. But the latest data finds that the stereotypical gender imbalance in this area doesn’t hold true, and dads are just as hands-on when it comes to raising their kids.

That includes African-American fathers.

In fact, in its coverage of the study, the Los Angeles Times noted that the results “defy stereotypes about black fatherhood” because the CDC found that black dads are more involved with their kids on a daily basis than dads from other racial groups:

In some cases, the differences between black fathers and white or Latino fathers weren’t statistically significant. Nonetheless, the fact that there’s no dramatic drop-off for African-American fathers is still a surprising revelation for some people.

Considering the fact that “black fatherhood” is a phrase that is almost always accompanied by the word “crisis” in U.S. society, it’s understandable that the CDC’s results seem innovative. But in reality, the new data builds upon years of research that’s concluded that hands-on parenting is similar among dads of all races. There’s plenty of scientific evidence to bust this racially-biased myth.

The Pew Research Center, which has tracked this data for years, consistently finds no big differences between white and black fathers. Gretchen Livingston, one of the senior researchers studying family life at Pew, wasn’t at all surprised by the new CDC data. “Blacks look a lot like everyone else,” she pointed out.

Although black fathers are more likely to live separately from their children — the statistic that’s usually trotted out to prove the parenting “crisis” — many of them remain just as involved in their kids’ lives. Pew estimates that 67 percent of black dads who don’t live with their kids see them at least once a month, compared to 59 percent of white dads and just 32 percent of Hispanic dads.

And there’s compelling evidence that number of black dads living apart from their kids stems from structural systems of inequality and poverty, not the unfounded assumption that African-American men somehow place less value on parenting. Equal numbers of black dads and white dads tend to agree that it’s important to be a father who provides emotional support, discipline, and moral guidance. There’s one area of divergence in the way the two groups approach their parental responsibilities: Black dads are even more likely to think it’s important to financially provide for their children.

Dr. Roberta L. Coles, a sociology professor at Marquette University, has also researched black fathers for nearly a decade. Her most well-known work includes The Best Kept Secret: Single Black Fathers and The Myth of the Missing Black Father: The Persistence of Black Fatherhood in America. Like Pew, Coles has also found that even though black dads may be less likely to marry their kids’ mothers, they typically remain involved in raising their children.

In an interview with the Grio this week, Coles explained that she’s invested in continuing to challenge the prevailing stereotypes in this area. “It’s important to get it out there that that’s not the whole picture,” Coles noted. “People need to know there are men out there trying to do their best.”

That’s the same reason that Kenrya Rankin Naasel recently published Bet On Black, a collection of essays in which African-American women share their stories of being raised by great fathers. “For years, we’ve all been bombarded with statistics that scream our men are not up to the important task of fathering,” she explained in an interview with BET about her project. “Ultimately, I hope that Bet On Black challenges the rhetoric about our families and changes the conversation to one that celebrates rather than denigrates.”

Despite the concrete evidence to dispel the prevailing assumptions about black dads, the conversation is still dominated by headlines like “What’s the Problem with Black Fathers?” and “Who’s Your Daddy: The Epidemic Of Absent Black Fathers.” President Obama has drawn some criticism for repeatedly delivering speeches about the importance of fatherhood to nonwhite audiences. And this past fall, when Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson’s two-year-old son tragically passed away, the media wasted no time falling back on all the stereotypes about irresponsible black dads.

The resistance to the research in the field may speak to the fact that racially-motivated stereotypes are particularly hard to break out of. For instance, despite the wealth of evidence disproving Americans’ assumptions about welfare recipients, the deeply-ingrained myth of the “welfare queen” remains.
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black-fatherhood.png


Well I'll be fucking dammed.

How about that?
 
I know it's a myth, because I owe my life to a constantly-involved, excellent Black father (and mother). :)
I am glad this article is out, though.
 
This was a great article, thanks for the link.
 
I remember when I lived in South Chicago, my wife and I saw billboards and signs telling black men to "be a father". It was a weird kind of culture shock to me, and I wondered if it was really that bad. All my experiences with black fathers have shown them to be attentive, so my anecdotal experience says "no".
 
Yeah I think the stereotype is perpetuated by the fact the dad doesn't want to marry the mom of the children so the women go around saying the dad isn't in the picture even if he is lol.
 
obijkenobi said:
Makes sense they would. Childhood habits and development are so important to the people we become after all
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TacticalFox88 said:
Come on, now, just take a minute to think about why they would do this.

It's right in the acronym.

:P
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Yeah I get that it makes sense after thinking about it. But I guess I never really did. When I hear "CDC" I think of scientists tracking avian flu or ebola cases or notifying travelers of outbreaks in various world regions or something. I don't think of people studying if black fathers are absent parents or not.
 
captmcblack said:
I know it's a myth, because I owe my life to a constantly-involved, excellent Black father (and mother). :)
I am glad this article is out, though.
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You're lucky. Most of the black kids I went to school with in south los angeles had an absent father or had a step dad.
 
Maybe I overlooked it in the article, but what were the solid numbers on the total PERCENT of black fathers living with their children compared to white/Latino? I would have to believe that would be the biggest influence on a child--that constant contact.

Anyone have the statistics?
 
Verano said:
You're lucky. Most of the black kids I went to school with in south los angeles had an absent father or had a step dad.
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Or so you thought, but it's time to retire that kind of unfounded belief. Empirical evidence now shows that if their father was African American he was most likely involved.
 
Plinko said:
Maybe I overlooked it in the article, but what were the solid numbers on the total PERCENT of black fathers living with their children compared to white/Latino? I would have to believe that would be the biggest influence on a child--that constant contact.

Anyone have the statistics?
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I was wondering this too.
 
You both must have missed this part:

And there’s compelling evidence that number of black dads living apart from their kids stems from structural systems of inequality and poverty, not the unfounded assumption that African-American men somehow place less value on parenting. Equal numbers of black dads and white dads tend to agree that it’s important to be a father who provides emotional support, discipline, and moral guidance. There’s one area of divergence in the way the two groups approach their parental responsibilities: Black dads are even more likely to think it’s important to financially provide for their children.
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Grym said:
Yeah I get that it makes sense after thinking about it. But I guess I never really did. When I hear "CDC" I think of scientists tracking avian flu or ebola cases or notifying travelers of outbreaks in various world regions or something. I don't think of people studying if black fathers are absent parents or not.
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I van see where you are coming from. I think the study was more about father hood in general than black father's though. I'm sure studies like this are commission ed thinking "how big of a factor is having an absentee father on things like obesity and such? Is that where we need to spend more time absentee nd other and money? If so, to what demographics?"
 
Plinko said:
Maybe I overlooked it in the article, but what were the solid numbers on the total PERCENT of black fathers living with their children compared to white/Latino? I would have to believe that would be the biggest influence on a child--that constant contact.

Anyone have the statistics?
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They really seem to gloss over that statistic. Here's the quote from the article:

Although black fathers are more likely to live separately from their children — the statistic that’s usually trotted out to prove the parenting “crisis” — many of them remain just as involved in their kids’ lives.
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It really kind of undercuts the study's conclusion to not bring the statistic to light.
 
This is some development. I definitely recognize the stereotype as something that may have been in the back of my head from time to time—this makes more sense, thankfully.
 
The above stats only says that of the black fathers living with kids they are relatively participating in their children's life and even more than other groups. And of the fathers not living with kids there is a somewhat higher participation intheir kid's lifes than other groups but still small percentage The relevant statistic missing is the percentage of black fathers who don't live with their children.

The absent black and even white father is not proven a complete myth by those statistics.

The site does not appear biased but by random googling I found this: http://www.fatherhood.org/media/fatherhood-statistics

2/3 black children live with absent fathers and out of them about 15% participate in their lifes (that 15 is based on a rough approximation of the OP statistics) a somewhat by about 5% higher percentage (that 5 also rough) than other groups parents.

According to 2011 U.S. Census Bureau data, over 24 million children live apart from their biological fathers. That is 1 out of every 3 (33%) children in America. Nearly 2 in 3 (64%) African American children live in father-absent homes. One in three (34%) Hispanic children, and 1 in 4 (25%) white children live in father-absent homes. In 1960, only 11% of children lived in father-absent homes.
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Could be biased or wrong. I think the statistics show a problem of absent fathers in general if they are not wrong.
 
Pew estimates that 67 percent of black dads who don’t live with their kids see them at least once a month
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Truly something to celebrate...

Aren't nearly 70% of black children born out of wedlock? Doesn't strike me as a healthy thing, and while I'm not going to evangelize about "back in the day" it's clear that there are systematic problems that need to be addressed. Some things are out of our control, such as unemployment issues and crime, but I wouldn't wave this report around as validation that nothing is wrong. People who can't afford to take care of their children shouldn't have children, and men who abandon their children (or have no interest in seeing them more than a couple times a month) are pathetic.
 
TangoAlphaLima said:
They really seem to gloss over that statistic. Here's the quote from the article:

It really kind of undercuts the study's conclusion to not bring the statistic to light.
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Yeah, it stood out to be as being pretty manipulatory and bad journalism. Don't try to strengthen your argument by leaving out important information like that.
 
Fascinating. Just as a question, where does the stereotype of the "deadbeat black dad" even originate from? If the reality of black dads is different from what our cultural perception is of them, then we should look into why it exists and gain a better understanding of their situation.
 
This is interesting and shows that in the sense of "complete" absence it is a myth, but like a couple have said, they don't show actual number/percent of fathers that don't live with their children, which may be part of where the myth stems from, and also shouldn't be completely overlooked in research.

Edit: The underlined part I completely agree with though.
 
Plinko said:
Maybe I overlooked it in the article, but what were the solid numbers on the total PERCENT of black fathers living with their children compared to white/Latino? I would have to believe that would be the biggest influence on a child--that constant contact.

Anyone have the statistics?
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I was thinking the same thing, so I went to the CDC's study itself. Page five says:

Non-Hispanic white men aged 15–44 had the largest difference between those with coresidential children (37%) and those with noncoresidential children (8.2%). The difference was smallest among non- Hispanic black men, with 33% having coresidential children and 24% having noncoresidential children. Among Hispanic men, more than twice as many had coresidential children (44%) than had noncoresidential children (18%).
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So while Jackben points out the study claims that this discrepancy is caused by poverty, the fact remains it's correlated with race.
 
It's correlated with race because poverty and race are correlated. Is this not common sense?
 
Was listening to the Camp album from Childish Gambino as I read through this and the line in the lyric even talks about a kid coming up to him and saying.

it's hard to pin it cause you'd only understand
if you were me for just a minute
this one kid said somethin' that was really bad
he said I wasn't really black because I had a dad
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Glad to hear it simply isn't true.
Also as a Mexican, the family ties thing is huge, even living in LA, I barely knew any kids with fathers who weren't there if they were Mexican. They might have had shitty dads or maybe dead fathers in the worst case, but otherwise they were still sticking around.
 
Jackben said:
Or so you thought, but it's time to retire that kind of unfounded belief. Empirical evidence now shows that if their father was African American he was most likely involved.
Click to expand...

But don't the stats also show that a larger proportion of Black fathers are NOT in the home?

Or am I reading it wrong? From what I'm seeing this is saying that *IF* a Black father is involved he is REALLY INVOLVED. But we still have a higher than normal amount of fathers not around.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Jackben said:
It's correlated with race because poverty and race are correlated. Is this not common sense?
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Agreed.
 
Mammoth Jones said:
But don't the stats also show that a larger proportion of Black fathers are NOT in the home?

Or am I reading it wrong? From what I'm seeing this is saying that *IF* a Black father is involved he is REALLY INVOLVED. But we still have a higher than normal amount of fathers not around.

Correct me if I'm wrong.



Agreed.
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No you're reading it right. But I think the whole point of debunking the myth is showing that the data rejects the idea that black fathers are voluntarily more un-involved than other races. This is not supported by the CDC's findings at all. There may still be an issue with black fathers living outside the home due to extraneous circumstances that needs to be addressed. But is is not necessarily inherent to being a black father as much as it is to being black and thus affected by systemic issues as icarus-daedelus points out.
 
Mammoth Jones said:
But don't the stats also show that a larger proportion of Black fathers are NOT in the home?

Or am I reading it wrong? From what I'm seeing this is saying that *IF* a Black father is involved he is REALLY INVOLVED. But we still have a higher than normal amount of fathers not around.

Correct me if I'm wrong.



Agreed.
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You're not wrong. Those census data numbers somebody posted earlier show that twice as many black children live in absent-father homes than Hispanic children and almost three times as many as white children.
 
DrFunk said:
2 pages max.

Still, great news
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zero_suit said:
For some reason, I don't think this thread will get many replies. Interesting stats nonetheless.
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Can someone explain these posts to me? What's the implication?

This is an interesting report with some compelling conclusions but I suppose I don't see it as one ripe for heated debate either, it seems fairly straightfoward.

Reuenthal said:
The above stats only says that of the black fathers living with kids they are relatively seemingly responsible or participating in their children's life. And of the fathers not living with kids there is a somewhat higher but still small percentage participation intheir kid's lifes than other groups. The relevant statistic missing is the percentage of black fathers who don't live with their children.

The absent black and even white father is not proven a complete myth by those statistics.

The site does not appear biased but by random googling I found this: http://www.fatherhood.org/media/fatherhood-statistics

2/3 black children live with absent fathers and out of them about 15% participate in their lifes a somewhat by about 5% higher percentage than white parents.
Click to expand...
The report does address that a bit

Although black fathers are more likely to live separately from their children — the statistic that’s usually trotted out to prove the parenting “crisis” — many of them remain just as involved in their kids’ lives. Pew estimates that 67 percent of black dads who don’t live with their kids see them at least once a month, compared to 59 percent of white dads and just 32 percent of Hispanic dads.

And there’s compelling evidence that number of black dads living apart from their kids stems from structural systems of inequality and poverty, not the unfounded assumption that African-American men somehow place less value on parenting. Equal numbers of black dads and white dads tend to agree that it’s important to be a father who provides emotional support, discipline, and moral guidance. There’s one area of divergence in the way the two groups approach their parental responsibilities: Black dads are even more likely to think it’s important to financially provide for their children.
Click to expand...
 
Fathers not in the household != Bad fathers

Then fathers who go oversees to war or divorced fathers would fit the description of bad parents

Stupid slippery slope
 
icarus-daedelus said:
No, catty women are not responsible for the perpetuation of this stereotype. The fact that, in absolute numbers, fewer black fathers tend to live with their children due to broader, systemic reasons of poverty & inequality (such as a criminal justice system that disproportionately targets black men at all levels), is a more plausible culprit for a wide-reaching social phenomenon, don't you think? The article addresses this, albeit briefly.
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And this is what the studies need to start being focused on. This is a major, major problem.
 
Yeah, to me the problem was obviously severe socio-economic challenges in urban areas, lack of job and education opportunities, an openly racist justice system, asinine drug laws incarcerating a non-trivial percentage of adult black males, and other structural factors rather than some pathology of black-ness. But I admit that it's probably necessary to establish this so as to discourage victim blaming or hopefully enhance support for a progressive approach to the social issues necessary to improve the lives of the urban poor.
 
Jackben said:
No you're reading it right. But I think the whole point of debunking the myth is showing that the data rejects the idea that black fathers are voluntarily more un-involved than other races. This is not supported by the CDC's findings at all. There may still be an issue with black fathers living outside the home due to extraneous circumstances that needs to be addressed. But is is not necessarily inherent to being a black father as much as it is to being black and thus affected by systemic issues as icarus-daedelus points out.
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Plinko said:
You're not wrong. Those census data numbers somebody posted earlier show that twice as many black children live in absent-father homes than Hispanic children and almost three times as many as white children.
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Oh, ok. Cause I mean I can only speak from personal experience which obviously isn't conclusive, lol. But I mean my dad was around and tried his best to instill a healthy work ethic and such. Many of my friends dads were around but definitely a chunk weren't but still kept in contact with their dads.
 
Bill O'Reilly sure does love to talk about absent black fathers for some reason. I wonder if we'll see this report mentioned in the "No Spin Zone".
 
I too am surprised the CDC did a focus on fatherhood rather than motherhood, but the study is definitely welcome considering the "once you go black...single mother" thing I keep seeing pop up on FB.
 
Another important historical development
was the decline of economic
opportunities for African American men
beginning in the 1970s. Several trends
contributed to the loss of jobs and wages,
including deindustrialization, deunionization,
suburbanization and globalization
of jobs, White and Black flight from
the inner cities, which led to a lower tax
base, decrease in public services, increase
in crime and violence, and social and
physical deterioration of inner-city communities.
27 The lack of employment
opportunities in the inner cities where
most Black men reside made them less
marriageable and less able to provide for
their families. The rise in incarceration of
young Black men beginning in the
1980s, driven largely by the ‘‘war on
crimes’’ and ‘‘war on drugs,’’ further
depleted the marriage market and deterred
family formation in many urban
African American communities.28
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Where is the F in MCH? Father Involvement in African American (pdf)

How I hate pdf's.
 
King Mystery said:
Bill O'Reilly sure does love to talk about absent black fathers for some reason. I wonder if we'll see this report mentioned in the "No Spin Zone".
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The Absent Black Father myth is pretty nifty, because it allows people like him to criticize Black people whilst blaming their misfortune on problems with the culture instead of institutional oppression.
 
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