The incidence of unmarried adolescent fatherhood among low-income African Americans is twice that of other ethnic groups. These young fathers face many barriers to the positive and consistent paternal involvement that fosters child well being. This qualitative comparative case study will describe the influence of the paternal-maternal kinship system (the adolescent father, his parents, the adolescent mother, and her parents) on unmarried, low-income, African American adolescent fatherhood over time. The kinscripts conceptual framework (Burton and Stack, 1993), a culturally sensitive conceptualization of minority families, identifies three conceptual domains that guide this study: kin-work, the work needed to ensure the survival of the baby; kin-time, shared understandings about the appropriate sequence of role transitions into parenthood and grandparenthood; and kin-scription, the process of socializing kinship system members to kin-work. Existing cross-sectional research suggests that adolescent father involvement declines substantially between 12-24 months. Thirty paternal-maternal kinship systems experiencing adolescent fatherhood will be interviewed in late pregnancy and at 1, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after birth. Analysis will describe: 1) the expectations in kin-time and kin-work of adolescent fathers, specifically who needs to do what tasks; 2) the kin-scription mechanisms used by the paternal-maternal kinship system members and health care professionals that facilitate or inhibit implementation of these expected roles; 3) the actual kinwork of the adolescent fathers, specifically the implementation of the adolescent father roles; and 4) the degree of satisfaction with the adolescent fathers' actual kin-work. We will develop a rich description of each kinship system in its socioenvironmental context. We then identify major themes across kinship systems and a beginning typology of the negotiation of adolescent fatherhood over time. This resubmission is strengthened by a small pilot that documents the appropriateness of the conceptual model to guide analysis and the feasibility of the proposed procedures. Other reviewer suggestions are also incorporated. Findings will be used to develop culturally and developmentally appropriate clinical assessments, teaching strategies, and to influence public policies to enhance paternal involvement for African American adolescent fathers and their families. ? ?
| Dallas, Constance Miles (2013) Rapid repeat pregnancy among unmarried, African American adolescent parent couples. West J Nurs Res 35:177-92 |
| Dallas, Constance M (2009) Interactions between adolescent fathers and health care professionals during pregnancy, labor, and early postpartum. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs 38:290-9 |
